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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 



, 



APPLIED 
PSYCHOLOGY 



v BY 

IL L. HOLLINGWORTH, Ph.D. 

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
AUTHOR OF "VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY," "ADVERTISING AND SELLING/' ETC 

AND 

A. T. POFFENBERGER, Ph.D. 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK LONDON 

1920 



3- 






*?>v 



Copyright, 1917, 1920, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



FEB -4 1920 



Printed in the United States of America. 



©CI.A561806 



TO OUB TEACHERS 

J. McK CATTELL 
EDWARD L. THORNDIKE 
ROBERT S. WOODWORTH 



i 



V 



PREFACE 

Books in the field of applied psychology have tended in 
the past to belong in one or several of three categories, 
which may be described in some such way as the follow- 
ing: (1) Technical monographs, such as are intelligible 
only to the advanced student or the professional psycholo- 
gist; (2)' Volumes covering in an intensive way some par- 
ticular and limited field of practice, such as education, ad- 
vertising, mental examination; (3) General and more or 
less prophetic popular essays, pointing out suggestive fields 
of interest. There exists no book which well serves as a 
general text of applied psychology, presenting its principal 
aims, types, methods, its various fields of endeavor, and its 
outstanding results and accomplishments. Students of ap- 
plied psychology must at present be referred to a very 
scattered series of special articles, monographs or books, of 
varying value, and by no means generally, easily or equally 
accessible. The general reader, working without expert 
guidance, can hardly do more than dip in a random way 
into magazine stories, subscription books, and an occasional 
serious exposition of the more restricted type. The general 
text books of psychology do not have the practical point of 
vi£W for which he is in search. 

Applied psychology is clearly on the way toward a digni- 
fied and prosperous existence. The present year has seen 

vu 



viii PREFACE 

established the first professorship of applied psychology, 
the first American journal of applied psychology, and uni- 
versity courses and lectureships in applied psychology are 
rapidly multiplying. Psychology has been recognized as a 
vocation under the civil service regulations, and applied 
psychologists are finding themselves called to work in fac- 
tories, schools, courts, hospitals, agencies, banks, employ- 
ment departments, and various branches of municipal and 
civic enterprise. With this record of substantial achieve- 
ment in applied psychology, it seems only appropriate that 
there should be also available a general text book devoted 
to the subject. The authors of the present book have both 
been engaged for several years in teaching, research and 
consultation in this field, and have long felt, in their own 
work, the need for an exposition of the subject, which 
should be comprehensive, suggestive and interesting with- 
out sacrifice of definiteness, accuracy and balance. This 
need has prompted them to prepare the present book, which 
it is hoped may be useful at the same time to the student, 
the teacher and the general reader. 

In the earlier part of the text will be found a systematic 
statement of various aspects, principles and results of 
modern dynamic psychology which bear in a specially 
practical way on the personality and competence of the 
individual, regardless of his or her particular occupational 
activity. Emphasis is given to problems of original nature 
and instinctive equipment, the inheritance of mental traits 
and capacities, individual differences, the conditions and 
methods of effective work, learning and rest; the psycho- 
logical influences of such biological factors as age, growth, 



PREFACE ix 

sex and race; of such physiological factors as fatigue, 
drugs, periodicity, posture, sleep; and of such environ- 
mental factors as illumination, ventilation, weather, hu- 
midity, temperature, time of day, distractions, solitude. 

In the latter portion of the text the attitude, content and 
technique of psychology are considered in their particular 
relevance to the various types and fields of occupational 
activity. Attitude, content and technique, yielding three 
distinguishable forms of application, are illustrated by con- 
crete achievements in those fields in which the relations be- 
tween science and practice have been most explicitly formu- 
lated. These fields include the various departments and 
activities conveniently classified under the more general 
headings of Management (employment, supervision, organi- 
zation, training) ; Industry (economy of effort, routing, 
time and motion study) ; Business (manufacturing, adver- 
tising, salesmanship) ; Law (testimony, evidence, responsi- 
bility, prevention and correction) ; Social Work (misery, 
delinquency, defectiveness, mental abnormality, social 
psychology) ; Medicine (examination and research, phar- 
maco-psychology, psychotherapy, the psychological clinic, 
the medical curriculum) ; Education (school subjects and 
operations, methods of teaching, individual differences, edu- 
cational diagnosis, the learning process, educational meas- 
urement). A final chapter discusses the various institu- 
tional adjustments necessitated by the development of ap- 
plied psychology, the current and probable future ten- 
dencies, and their relative desirability. 

In so new and rapidly growing a field as that of applied 
psychology the teacher and professional student will for a 



x PREFACE 

long time find it useful to supplement even the most en- 
cyclopedic text book with concrete results from current 
investigations and achievements. The present book will 
have accomplished its aim if it assists in systematizing a 
field hitherto vague and unorganized, and helps to demon- 
strate that applied psychology is a dignified, productive 
and vigorous activity, as well as a fervent hope and a con- 
fident prophecy. 

H. L. HOLLINGWORTH. 
A. T. POFFENBERGER. 

Columbia University, 
June 1, 1917. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY . 1 

Definition of Applied Psychology; Scope of Applied 
Psychology; Difficulties and Limitations. 

IT. INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY UPON ACHIEVE- 
MENT 21 

Inheritance Common to the Human Species, General 
Characteristics, Reflexes and Instincts; Inheritance 
Common to the Races of Man. 

III. FAMILY INHERITANCE 40 

Physical Inheritance; General Mental Inheritance, De- 
fectiveness; Specific Mental Inheritance, Special 
Ability, Disease and Habits. 

IT. EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING .... 52 

Nature of the Learning Process; Efficiency and Habit 
Formation; Acquisition of Skill; Efficiency and Mem- 
ory; Effects of Practice on Individual Differences. 

V. INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE ON EFFI- 
CIENCY 78 

Physical and Physiological Characteristics of the 
Sexes; Mental Qualities of the Sexes, Instincts, In- 
telligence, Variability and other Characteristics; So- 
cial and Legal Age Limitations; Physical, Physiologi- 
cal and Mental Changes with Age; Chronological and 
Mental Age. 

xi 



* 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PA6B 

VI. ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS .... 98 

Temperature and Humidity; Climate and Season of 
the Year; Weather; Time of Day; Diurnal Course of 
Efficiency; Day and Night Work. 

VII. ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS (Continued) . 120 

Influence of Illumination; Distraction; Monotony and 
Solitude. 

VEIL WORK, REST, FATIGUE AND SLEEP . . 138 

Optimum Duration of Work Periods; Relation be- 
tween Work and Rest; Measurements of Mental and 
Physical Fatigue; Function and Hygiene of Sleep. 

IX. DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 161 

Physical and Mental Effects of Tobacco, Alcohol, Cof- 
fee, Tea, Strychnine, Morphine, etc. 

X. METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY IN 

SPECIAL FIELDS . . . . . . 185 

The Psychological Attitude; Applying Psychological 
Knowledge; Application of Psychological Technique. 

XL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE . . 194 ' 

Selection of Employees; Organization and Manage- 
ment; Psychological Influence of the Environment. 

XII. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP . . . 221 

Mental Set and Shift ; Effective Distribution of Effort ; 
Organizing the Worker's Movements; Time and Mo- 
tion Study; Psychological Effects on the Worker. 

XIII. PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET . . .232 

Psychology of the Consumer; The Psychology of Ad- 
vertising; The Psychology of Salesmanship. 



CONTENTS xiii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIV. PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW .... 248 
The Accumulation of Evidence; The Evaluation of 
Testimony; Determination of Responsibility; Adapta- 
tion of Corrective Measures. 

XV. PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER . 270 

The Causes of Misery; Delinquency and Deficiency; 
The Nature of Mental Abnormality; The Abstraction 
Fallacy. 

XVI. PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE . . .284 

General Relations; Psychological Researches on Pa- 
tients; Researches on Effects of Drugs; The Use of 
Psychological Agents; Determination of Organic Con- 
ditions of Efficiency; The Psychological Clinic; Psy- 
chology and the Medical School. 

XVII. PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION . . .306 

The Psychological Attitude in Education; The Con- 
tent of Psychology in Education; Psychological Tech- 
nique in Education. 

XVIII. THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 324 

Terminology; Institutional Adjustments; Five Forms 
of Adjustment; Their Relative Advantages. 

APPENDIX 331 

INDEX 343 



APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

CHAPTEE I 

EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Evebyoke is familiar with the great increase in 
the popularity of psychology within recent years. 
The number of books on psychological topics, the 
number of so-called psychological plays, of refer- 
ences to psychology in the newspapers and maga- 
zines, of efficiency bureaus and similar enterprises 
in the business world, all indicate a remarkable 
change in the status of psychology. 

Modern Tendencies in Psychology.— What is the 
cause of this great and sudden popularity? One 
might surmise that it is due to the fondness of the 
American people for fads, and that in a few years 
nothing will be heard of all of these applications of 
psychology to practical life. But there is another 
reason which seems far more plausible than this. 
It is the change which has taken place in the attitude 
of psychologists themselves toward their problems 
in the last twenty years. If we go back to the time 
of Aristotle, we find that psychology was of a specu- 
lative nature, and that its subject matter was the 



2 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

soul. Each philosopher had his own philosophy and 
arranged his psychology to suit that. Many cen- 
turies later there were attempts at an accurate de- 
scription of the mind; and the mind consisted of 
consciousness and nothing more. Consequently, 
there was great difference of opinion as to what the 
mind was really like. Each man alone could see 
and examine his own consciousness and no one could 
dispute what he found. Thus there were possible 
as many different views of the mind as there were 
individuals studying it. Many of our psychological 
problems even today are in a state of confusion for 
the reason that examination of consciousness offers 
the only source of information at present available. 
For instance, some psychologists insist that there 
are no such things as mental images, because they 
themselves do not find them in their consciousness. 
Others assert that there are images but that they 
are of no use, that they are simply accompaniments 
of the necessary processes, or are by-products of 
these necessary activities. Others contend that the 
mental images are absolutely essential to thought 
and give them a very high place in the mental life. 
These differences of opinion are probably inevitable 
so long as the investigations are limited to the study 
of consciousness. 

Such a state of affairs would naturally be unsatis- 
factory to those who hoped to make psychology a 
science. There could be no reduction of the findings 
to laws, so long as these findings differed in the case 



EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 3 

of each individual, and each was a law unto himself. 
It was necessary to find another source of informa- 
tion about the mind, which would reveal uniformities 
among different minds, and permit the formulation 
of a general human psychology. This source of in- 
formation was found in the behavior of the individ- 
ual, which might be taken as a sign of what was go- 
ing on within the mind. When an individual dis- 
played the same outward signs, made the same bod- 
ily movements as oneself in an identical situation, he 
was assumed to be having the same mental experi- 
ences. Among the most helpful signs of mental ac- 
tivities in human beings are language signs. By 
this use of analogy the sphere of psychology was ex- 
tended to include not only all normal human beings, 
but also the animal kingdom and that of the insane 
and undeveloped mind, because each of these classes 
has outward behavior which corresponds in a way 
to our own and hence can be interpreted as signifi- 
cant of mental activity. But it is well to keep in 
mind that these objective forms of behavior were 
first used as aids to the understanding of the inner 
life and the formulation of the laws of the mind. 
The outward signs of mental life, or the behavior 
of the individual, have gradually come to attract 
more and more interest, so that at present, in the 
opinion of some psychologists, they are the most im- 
portant aspects of psychology. In this way the tables 
have been turned and consciousness has become an 



A APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

aid to the understanding of behavior, instead of the 
reverse. In fact, there is a more extreme stage than 
this, among those who call themselves behaviorists. 
These men ignore consciousness altogether, and 
maintain that no help can be derived therefrom. 
Psychology then becomes the study of behavior, the 
study of the situations in which persons find them- 
selves, and the responses which they make to these 
situations. It is evident that this kind of study can 
be made as well on the lowest forms of animal life 
as on human beings. Indeed, it can be more easily 
studied in the lowest organisms, where the situa- 
tions and the responses are most simple, and in this 
realm the behavior psychologist has done the greater 
part of his work. 

The reason for the great change of emphasis from 
consciousness to behavior is not alone the difficulty 
in building up a system of theoretical psychology, 
but the change must be due in part to demands of 
practical life. So far as the latter are concerned, 
it is the behavior of men that is important; it is 
human action and not human consciousness with 
which one has to deal. Of course, behavior is here 
used in a broad sense, and includes not only the 
gross bodily movements but also the class of bodily 
responses that we call language. A man's whole 
life consists in a process of adjustment to his en- 
vironment, a series of responses to situations, of 
forms of behavior. To be a success or failure means 
to succeed or to fail to adjust oneself to one's en- 



EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 5 

vironment. A man who responds to the situations 
in which he is placed in a normal manner, or as other 
people do, is said to be sane ; one who fails to adjust 
himself in this way is said to be insane or out of 
his mind. 

When analyzed from the practical point of view, 
all education consists in the development and con- 
trol of behavior, in training an individual so that 
he shall react normally when put into certain situa- 
tions. Special training likewise consists in develop- 
ing the possibility of reactions to particular situa- 
tions. The education of a stenographer consists in 
part in training him to react by certain finger move- 
ments when certain characters appear before his 
eyes, or to make certain marks with a pencil when 
certain sounds strike his ears. All commercial and 
business life consists in making reactions to specific 
situations, and the training is only in preparation 
for the correct responses when the situations are 
presented. The whole may be expressed by the 
statement that every act of an individual, no matter 
how complicated it may be, is capable of analysis 
into the situation or appeal and the reaction or re- 
sponse to it. 

One might ask why the change in the point of 
view of psychology was so long delayed, — why the 
theoretical aspect held sway so long. Miinsterberg 
answered this question by saying that every science 
must reach a certain stage of maturity before prac- 
tical applications can be made* Such has been the 



6 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

case with the older sciences of physics and chem- 
istry. The science of psychology is very young in 
comparison with these, and doubt has sometimes 
been expressed as to whether it is yet mature enough 
to afford safe practical applications. 

A psychology constructed from this behavior point 
of view is called dynamic, or behavior, psychology, 
and its function may be said to be threefold: (1) 
To give a knowledge of the general principles of 
behavior. (2) To find how types of behavior may 
be acquired. (3) To find how the behavior of an 
individual in any particular situation may be con- 
trolled. To satisfy the first of these demands re- 
quires a knowledge of the physiological basis of 
behavior, and especially of the nervous system which 
controls behavior; to satisfy the second requires a 
knowledge of what forms of behavior we inherit 
from our ancestors, immediate and remote, and how 
this behavior may be modified; to satisfy the third 
requires a knowledge of the dependence of behavior 
upon the factors of attention, perception, memory, 
association, suggestion, and upon such conditions as 
health, disease, age, sex, together with the influence 
of such environmental factors as climate, season, 
temperature, etc. In short, one's behavior at any 
time depends upon the integrity of his physiological 
mechanism, upon his heredity, his education, and 
upon the present stimulus or the appeal to action. 

When one considers that all of these sets of con- 
ditions are variable factors in different individuals, 



EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 7 

it may appear impossible to predict at any one time 
just what an individual will do, or to control his 
actions. A further complication is added in that 
these factors may vary in relative influence in differ- 
ent situations and with different individuals. Yet 
in spite of all of these varying factors, numerous 
experiences of our daily life prove to us that the 
reactions of a number of individuals can be predicted 
with a fair amount of certainty. The common co- 
incidences in which two people find themselves think- 
ing about the same thing, or about to make the same 
remark, indicate the power of the stimulus to create 
the same response in different persons. It simply 
means that the three other factors aside from the 
present stimulus have not been so different that a 
given stimulus cannot bring forth the predicted re- 
sponse. A so-called association test for the diag- 
nosis of various forms of mental abnormality has 
been constructed on the principle that normal indi- 
viduals will react in more or less uniform ways, and 
that any great deviation from these normal forms 
of action indicates abnormality. One thousand per- 
sons were asked to tell the first word that came into 
their minds when each of a hundred different simple 
words was read to them. The records were then 
compiled, showing how the thousand people agreed 
in their responses to each word. A few of the stim- 
ulus words and the responses that were made to 
them will illustrate the nature of the results. In 
the following list the first word is the stimulus word, 



8 



APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 



the second is the response and the figures following 
show the number of persons out of a thousand that 
gave this particular response. 



dark 


light 


427 


Bible 


book 


338 


man 


woman 


394 


tobacco 


smoke 


387 


soft 


hard 


365 


blossom 


flower 


467 


black 


white 


339 


sour 


sweet 


349 


river 


water 


393 


eagle 


bird 


567 


window 


glass 


316 


lamp 


light 


650 



Give the stimulus word flower and one can be 
almost certain that the response will be rose, or 
give the word table and just as certainly will the 
response be chair. When one man meets another on 
the street and extends his hand in greeting, he does 
it with the certainty that the other will do likewise. 
When one considers the matter he will find that all 
social and business life has for its foundation the 
assumption that the behavior of human beings can 
be controlled and predicted with great certainty. 

Definition and Scope of Applied Psychology.— In 
a general way we might define Applied Psychology 
as the application of the findings of psychology to 
the affairs of daily life. Miinsterberg has made, in 
his "Psychotechnik," a distinction between theoreti- 
cal psychology, applied psychology and psychotech- 
nics. The first is what we know as pure or general 
psychology. The second consists in the explanation 
by psychological laws of past events and the facts 



EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 9 

of other sciences. For example, the explanation of 
certain historical movements or historical characters 
by appeal to psychology, and the application of the 
laws of psychology to the physics of color would be 
called applied psychology. Likewise, the application 
of the laws of mathematics to astronomy or the laws 
of chemistry to physiology would be applied science. 
Technics, on the other hand, would be represented 
by the application of the laws of mathematics to the 
construction of electrical machines for lighting pur- 
poses, or by the application of the laws of chemistry 
to the making of dye stuffs or medicines. So, Miin- 
sterberg would define psychotechnics as the appli- 
cation of psychology to the solution of practical 
problems. 

Such a distinction is a limited one, since every 
scientific discovery has the possibility of leading 
to some practical application, so that sooner or 
later it will determine a course of events in the 
future and for practical life. The scientific con- 
struction of medicines demands that the science of 
chemistry shall first have been applied to physio- 
logical processes. When this has been done, in a 
given concrete situation, examination will show what 
is lacking in the human organism, or what mechan- 
ism is functioning improperly, and medicines may 
be administered accordingly. Likewise, the proper 
blending of color dyes in the dyeing and printing of 
cloth and, in the construction of esthetic color pat- 
terns requires that the psychological laws of color 



10 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

contrast shall first have been applied to the physics 
of light mixture and the chemistry of dyes. Applied 
psychology and psychotechnics thus become co-ex- 
tensive. 

In the following pages we shall consider the field 
of applied psychology to be every situation in which 
human behavior is involved and where economy of 
human energy is of practical importance. This in- 
cludes much that would be excluded according to 
Munsterberg's definition. If one wished to subdi- 
vide the field further, it could be done according to 
the kinds of human behavior or according to the 
activities in which human beings engage. For in- 
stance, we might have the applied psychology of 
medicine, law, business, education, industry, and a 
hundred others. Obviously, this would be too cum- 
bersome for treatment in detail and would involve 
much repetition, since many of the different occu- 
pations would include essentially the same forms 
of behavior and be subject to the same conditions. 
Our plan will be to study first the behavior of the 
individual and its economy or efficiency without ref- 
erence to any particular sorts of occupation. Then 
we will show how these conditions of efficiency may 
be observed in the various larger and more impor- 
tant fields of human activity. 

History of Applied Psychology.— The history of 
applied psychology may be divided roughly into 
epochs or stages. One cannot mark off any definite 
period when it came into existence. In some crude 



EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 11 

form or other it lias probably existed as long as men 
were able to formulate any laws of the mind, 
whether these laws were correct or not. But one 
can mark off four periods more or less clearly up 
to the present. 

1. — Long before the time of experimental psychol- 
ogy, persons were accustomed to make use of very 
vague notions of the workings of the mind in the 
problems of daily life. The mind was supposed to 
be subject to the influence of all kinds of outside 
forces, those of inanimate and animate objects, and 
consequently, people's behavior was influenced by 
all kinds of superstitions and myths. Breaking mir- 
rors, spilling salt, putting up an umbrella in the 
house, getting married on Friday, being a member 
of a party of thirteen, and the like were unlucky 
factors in one 's experience. 

That one cannot work so well when tired as when 
rested, that the memories of some people are better 
than of others, that some persons are stupid and 
others bright, are conclusions that were applied to 
daily life before they were subjected to scientific 
test in the laboratory. 

2. — After experimental psychology had developed 
and a mass of standard experiments had been ac- 
cumulated, there was a tendency to apply these ex- 
periments directly to other fields, just as physio- 
logical and physical experiments were carried over 
directly into the psychological laboratory at its be- 
ginning. This tendency was perhaps most notice- 



12 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

able in education and medicine. For instance, edu- 
cation took over directly the experiments in memory, 
imagination, attention, etc, and tried to use them in 
solving educational problems. In the attempt to 
measure any form of complex activity, the proce- 
dure consisted in applying a large number of the 
standard laboratory tests to persons of varying 
ability in the particular activity. Then those tests 
that were well done by the experts and poorly done 
by those known to be poor in the work, were con- 
sidered good tests of this kind of ability. This pro- 
cedure is still of much value and is used where it 
has been impossible to analyze some complex form 
of activity into its elements. In such cases the best 
that can be done is to proceed in a random fashion 
in the hope that some tests will be discovered which 
will serve as indices of particular ability. It does 
not necessarily mean that the thing tested is a vital 
part of the process but for some reason serves as a 
symptom, in much the same manner that rose spots 
on the skin serve as a symptom of typhoid fever. 
3. — The third stage, the one into which applied 
psychology is just entering, is that in which the 
practical problems themselves are studied, and the 
actual situations form the material of the experi- 
ment. For example, in order to test the memory 
of individuals for advertisements of various kinds, 
the routine memory experiments with simple mate- 
rial are not used, but the tests are made with 
advertising material in some actual advertising 



EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 13 

medium, such as a magazine or newspaper. In case 
one wants to know what is the most economical study 
period for children of a certain age, he goes into 
the school and tries various lengths of study periods 
and measures the results of each for its efficiency. 
In studying the psychology of crime, the psychology 
of the witness or the criminal, one puts an individual 
into a situation which has similar mental condi- 
tions and tests his reactions. But it is not necessary 
to put a witness in a courtroom, or put a street car 
motorman on a street car to test him, although the 
particular forms of behavior must be duplicated. 
Where analysis of the behavior into lower terms is 
not possible or convenient this very procedure of 
trying the individual out in the task may be resorted 
to as in the two cases cited above. But the case of 
telephone operators will illustrate the other proce- 
dure. An attempt was made to pick out good oper- 
ators by putting them at a dummy keyboard and 
noting the efficiency of their work. It was found 
that this was a much less valuable method than to 
analyze the duties of an operator into their ele- 
ments and to apply tests to these simpler forms of 
behavior. Bather simple measures of memory, at- 
tention and accuracy of movement served as fairly 
adequate tests. 

4. — To this third period must be added a fourth 
including the type of work begun independently of 
psychology and under the name of efficiency engi- 
neering. It consists mainly of the analysis of vari- 



14 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ous tasks into their essential elements and then 
adapting human behavior to them in such a way as to 
produce the greatest output with the greatest econ- 
omy of effort. For instance, a certain series of oper- 
ations, such as handling machinery, will be photo- 
graphed with a moving picture machine, or with a 
stereoscopic camera, and every movement studied. 
If any movements are found to be superfluous, they 
must be eliminated. Much of this efficiency research 
has been accepted as invaluable by the applied psy- 
chologist, and in turn the efficiency expert has found 
that his work has led him into problems which must 
be referred to the psychologist. 

It may seem strange that when such a great 
amount of attention and money have been expended 
on perfecting machinery for practical use with a 
view to economy, that the matter of the human ele- 
ment should have been so long neglected. "When 
thousands of dollars are spent to increase the effi- 
ciency of a certain machine, it seems peculiar that 
the individual handling the machine should not have 
been studied just as carefully to bring him to his 
maximum efficiency. For every machine, no matter 
how automatic it may be, still depends on the human 
factor for its management. It seems as though this 
human factor had been left to care for itself on the 
assumption that common sense ought to tell a per- 
son what is the most economical way to do things. 
On account of this reliance on common sense many 
of the tests that are made and the changes recom- 



EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 15 

mended for the sake of efficiency are at first sight 
considered trivial. But any series of operations 
when carefully examined will demonstrate the fact 
that common sense does not pick out the most eco- 
nomical methods. In fact, from the nature of the 
case, it seems that this would be impossible. When 
one begins to learn any performance, common sense 
will probably select the method which seems easiest 
at that time. But at a later stage of the training 
this method may be an actual drawback to further 
progress. For instance, if one learns to write on 
the typewriter without instructions, he is almost 
sure to use the first finger of each hand and to fol- 
low all of his movements with his eyes. But it has 
been demonstrated by experiment that rapid writ- 
ing requires that it shall be by the touch method and 
with all of the fingers. Common sense would not 
start that way, because progress would be too slow 
and because the difficulties would seem too great. 

Much of the neglect of the human factor in effi- 
ciency is due to a failure to realize that a few un- 
necessary movements permitted in such an activity 
as sewing, would add much to the bodily energy con- 
sumed in the course of a day. The following con- 
clusion from an experiment wrongly attributed to 
one of the writers is as follows : 

" ... It takes more physical energy to play the ' Evening 
Star' on a cello than to shovel four tons of coal. He 
finds further that a pressure average of three and a half 
pounds per note is exerted and the total for a three- 



16 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

minute rendition to be nine thousand four hundred and 
fourteen pounds.' ' 

Whether or not this be a correct statement, it 
serves to emphasize the possibility of great waste 
of energy from small and unnecessary movements. 

A type of work which has been investigated, and 
which would be considered about as simple as«work 
could possibly be, is that of handling pig-iron, pick- 
ing up one pig at a time, carrying it a short dis- 
tance and then dropping it. Yet, by careful analysis 
of all of the movements made, the output of a man in 
a day's work was increased from about twelve tons 
to forty-seven tons. More than this, his working 
hours were reduced, his pay increased two-thirds 
and he went home each night much less fatigued 
than when doing one-fourth of the work. Another 
type of work, namely, shoveling, has been investi- 
gated and has yielded just as startling results. A 
careful analysis of every movement made in the act 
of shoveling showed that it was inefficient to use 
the same type of shovel for all kinds of work and 
that the shoveler could not wisely determine the 
rate at which he should work. His common sense 
would not tell him what would be the state of his 
efficiency at the close of the day, nor whether he was 
starting too slowly or too rapidly to get the maxi- 
mum results for the whole day. Attention to factors 
such as these is said to have increased the output 
of each man by a huge per cent. One series of tests 



EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 17 

showed that 140 men could do as much as 500 had 
previously done, and the wages of each of the 140 
were raised. 

It has probably occurred to the reader that such 
increase in efficiency must depend somewhat on the 
choice of the right individuals for the particular 
task. Not every man could carry 48 tons of pig- 
iron in a day. It is quite true that applied psy- 
chology demands that we have means of selecting 
individuals according to certain standards, — in other 
words it demands that we study differences among 
people as well as likenesses. The early work in 
psychology consisted in developing the laws of be- 
havior and ignoring the exceptions. Applied psy- 
chology demands that just as much attention be paid 
to the exception as to the average — that the per- 
sonal differences be taken into account. This em- 
phasis on the differences among people is one of 
the greatest steps in advance toward a real ap- 
plied psychology. As soon as the attempt is made 
to fit a man to his job, or to fit the job to the man, 
his stupidity, slowness, nervousness, aptitudes, etc., 
must be known. For instance, if a man wants to be- 
come a typesetter, he should be tested to see whether 
his reactions are rapid enough to make him able to 
compete with others. He may be an individual whose 
reactions to stimuli are habitually so slow as to dis- 
qualify him for certain occupations. A man who 
wishes to become an aeroplane driver must be one 
whose reactions to changes of position are rapid 



18 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

enough, to prevent his machine from turning turtle 
completely before he can make the movements to 
right it. 

The fundamental fact of applied psychology is 
that the individual is the unit of action, and all ad- 
vance in this science must rest upon a knowledge of 
the laws of individual behavior } and the conditions 
which affect it. To one who reviews the field of 
modern business, industry and education, the strik- 
ing thing is the emphasis that is being placed on the 
individual rather than the group. It can be seen 
in education, in the recognition of the fact that the 
individual should be the real unit rather than the 
class, although actual practice is limited to an ap- 
proximation to this ideal; it can be seen in the 
administration of charity which now consists in the 
study of individual cases ; it can be seen in industry 
in the use of the piece work system and reward 
system, which base pay on what the individual can 
do; the consideration of the individual in the con- 
struction of machinery; the arrangement of hours 
of labor, rest, vacations; the consideration of the 
individual in the selection and training of employees. 

Difficulties and Limitations of Applied Psychol- 
ogy.— One of the great dangers for applied psychol- 
ogy is that too much may be expected of it, and 
that it may be extended into fields where it is not 
prepared to go. In fact, its great popularity has 
led some venturous spirits to carry it quite beyond 



EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 19 

the zone of safety. Two difficulties inherent in the 
subject may be pointed out : 

1. — The problems and situations of daily life are 
extremely complicated and are influenced by a great 
many factors. Consequently, great care must be 
taken that no important factors are overlooked in 
analysis. Correct results demand an analysis, not 
only of the task into its elements, but wherever pos- 
sible of the total behavior into its elements. Errors 
may be due to incompleteness in either of these 
spheres. One example will suffice to indicate this 
danger. There is among the results of experimental 
psychology what is called the curve of forgetting, 
which shows the rate at which the average mind 
forgets simple material with the passage of time. 
It has been found that forgetting goes on very 
rapidly for a period immediately after the learning, 
but the rate becomes slower and slower as the time 
lengthens. This curve of forgetting has been pro- 
posed as a basis according to which business houses 
shall send out their follow-up letters in order to get 
the maximum effect. Since forgetting is most rapid 
during the very early stages, a schedule must be 
arranged by which the letters shall be sent out rather 
frequently at first and gradually becoming fewer 
and fewer as time goes on. Whether such reasoning 
can be carried over from the laboratory experiments 
on simple material to the complicated situation of 
the mail order business, might, of course, depend on 
many other factors of equally practical importance. 



20 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

2. — Psychology will always be limited by the fact 
that while it can determine the means to the end, it 
can have nothing to do with the determination of 
the end itself. For example, it may be able to tell 
how to arrange the labor economically for the con- 
struction of a bridge, but whether the bridge should 
be built or not is another question ; it may tell how 
to get information from a person accused of a crime, 
or from a material witness without his knowing it 
or even against his will, but whether that is the right 
thing to do must remain for ethics or sociology to 
decide; it may be able to tell how to sell an order 
of goods to a purchaser who does not want the 
goods, but whether this would be ethical or not 
psychology need not decide. In short, it may deter- 
mine means, but the determination of ends and their 
values is beyond its sphere. 



CHAPTER H 

INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY UPON ACHIEVEMENT 

However one may choose to take sides on the 
question as to whether heredity or environment is 
the more important, it must be agreed that the fun- 
damental basis of all human efficiency is to be found 
in the physical and mental constitution which is 
given to one as a legacy by his ancestors. "We start 
with an inheritance good or bad and upon this basis 
our success or failure must be established. Much 
investigation has been carried on, in recent years, 
to determine whether certain special aptitudes, such 
as musical or mathematical ability, are inherited. 
Although such questions as these are more or less in 
dispute there are certain fundamental facts which 
are generally agreed upon. We will take up the 
problem by beginning with the more general inher- 
ited characteristics, following this with the discus- 
sion of more and more specific qualities, somewhat 
as follows: 

I. Inheritance common to the human species. 
H. Inheritance common to particular races. 
IH. Inheritance in families. 

21 



22 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Underlying the whole question of inheritance is 
that of the mechanism of inheritance and closely 
related to this that of the bodily seat of the inherited 
qualities. The problem of the mechanism of inherit- 
ance or the laws of inheritance is of great impor- 
tance for the elimination of bad and the preserva- 
tion of good characters, but this problem Is too in- 
volved to be discussed here. "We are interested 
mainly in the study of the facts of inheritance ; to put 
them together into a theory would be to select that 
biological theory into which the facts best fit. 

So far as the bodily seat of the inherited qualities 
is concerned it may be said that they are represented 
by conditions in the central nervous system, the 
brain, or cerebrum, the cerebellum and the spinal 
cord. The nervous system is thought of as a system 
made up of centers and connecting pathways very 
much like a large telephone system with its central 
station, its local and private exchanges, and the 
tremendous number of wires connecting these sta- 
tions. Certain pathways open to travel mean that 
certain bodily activities will take, place when stimuli 
affect the senses. The inherited tendencies are con- 
ceived as conditions of lowered resistance in certain 
pathways which make them open to use without any, 
previous exercise. Just as habits are thought of as 
certain changes produced in the conduction units, 
or neurones, so the inherited tendencies are repre- 
sented by relatively simple and fixed paths of con- 
duction predetermined for the individual, and cer- 



INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 23 

tain more complex systems of conduction paths 
which are linked together so as to function in a 
predetermined way. 

I. Inheritance common to the human species. 

A. — Reflexes. — At birth our bodily mechanism is 
so constructed that certain simple forms of behavior 
will occur when certain definite stimuli affect our 
sense organs. A bright light falling into a new- 
born baby's eye will cause the pupil of the eye to 
contract; food placed in the mouth will cause acts 
of swallowing. These together with the acts of 
emptying the bowels and bladder and many more 
activities necessary for the preservation of life are 
known as reflexes. These are characterized by: 
a. — Their automatic nature. As long as the mech- 
anism is intact, a certain movement follows a 
certain stimulus with a machine-like precision, 
b. — Their independence of consciousness. These 
reflex responses may become known to us in 
one way or another, but they are not under 
our control, except in a few rather remarkable 
cases, which must be considered as abnormali- 
ties. 
c. — By their similarity in all people, 
d. — By their relative fixity. These reflexes can- 
not ordinarily be changed or varied as a result 
of experience, other than the breaking down 
of the physiological mechanism underlying 
them. 



24 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

On account of these four characteristics they are 
of no great interest to the applied psychologist so 
long as they function normally. When any abnor- 
mality develops in these reflexes, it may serve as a 
symptom of more severe behavior disturbances that 
may follow. For example, the knee jerk, the pupil- 
lary reflex and others serve as signs of the approach 
of locomotor ataxia, paresis and the like. 

B. — Instincts. — In addition to the simple reflexes 
functioning at birth there is a large group of more 
complex activities included as part of our original 
equipment, and known as instincts. It is known that 
they are not learned by the individual because, — 
a. — They appear to function more or less ade- 
quately the first time the stimulus which ex- 
cites them is received, 
b. — They are common to the human race as a 
whole, however much the surroundings of the 
various groups of peoples may differ. And 
further, a large proportion of these activities 
are common to the higher animals, as well as 
man. In addition to these two characteristics, 
instincts are further characterized by 
c. — Their complexity as compared with the re- 
flexes, in that they consist of a chain or series 
of movements occurring in an orderly 
sequence, 
d. — They are usually accompanied by conscious- 
ness, although they do not always depend on 
consciousness for their control. 



INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 25 

e. — They are modifiable in the course of the indi- 
vidual's life experience. 

This group of activities or tendencies to activity 
is of especial importance to the student of behavior 
and efficiency for three reasons : 

1. — The acquisition of all kinds of behavior, how- 
ever complex and however much learning may be 
involved, constitutes modification of these original 
forms of behavior. It is a rule that all learning 
must proceed from the known to the unknown or that 
learning consists in the modification of something 
that the individual can already do. Thus if an or- 
ganism lack some of the instinctive forms of be- 
havior, its ultimate development will be defective 
to that extent. 

2. — Many of our acts throughout our whole life 
are guided and controlled by these instinctive ten- 
dencies. However much they may be modified by 
experience and learning, we still retain the direct 
and unlearned form of response under many cir- 
cumstances. This is especially true where for any 
reason the inhibitions placed by society upon our 
actions are removed or disregarded, as in great emo- 
tional disturbances, in anger, sorrow, joy and the 
like. For instance, many of the atrocities committed 
by soldiers in war, and by persons in mobs, are 
attributed to the fact that these unlearned tenden- 
cies to action are no longer under control. But we 
act instinctively in many cases where one would not 
at first suspect it — the things we attend to, are inter- 



26 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ested in, and the things ve lilo and dislike are to 
a large extent determined by instinct. A knowledge 
of the nature and the strength of these instinctive 
tendencies enables one to select stimuli for their 
arousal and consequently to exercise some control 
over the behavior of people. 

3. — Instincts are subject to the most extreme vari- 
ation in two directions, that is, certain tendencies 
may be abnormally strong or abnormally weak. In 
either case profound modifications of the total be- 
havior result. Failure to recognize the deep-seated 
cause of many of the variations of human behavior, 
especially the criminal types of behavior, has led 
to a wrong conception of how such conditions may 
be successfully treated. 

Two examples from the business world will illus- 
trate the use of a knowledge of the instincts. The 
advertising man who puts up the largest and most 
brilliant sign knows that, other things being equal, 
it will draw attention from its less brilliant neigh- 
bors, because we have an inborn tendency to be 
attracted by large and bright objects. Again, a 
book agent who tries to sell a dictionary to a mother 
and emphasizes its necessity for the education of 
her children will sell where another who neglects 
this point might not, because of the great strength 
of the parental instinct. 

A complete catalogue of the instinctive tendencies 
of human beings would be extremely large, hence we 
will consider only those which have most importance 



INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 27 

from our point of view. First let ns consider five 
fundamental characteristics of our original natures 
as described by Thorndike. 

1. — We are born with the possibility of getting 
sensations of certain definite kinds when certain 
stimuli affect our sense organs This simply means 
that we are born with sense organs and brain struc- 
ture such that certain stimuli produce specific forms 
of reaction in consciousness. This fact is so obvious 
that it is likely to be overlooked, and yet the great 
change in the mental life caused by the failure of any 
part of this mechanism to function, as in the case 
of congenital blindness, shows the importance of 
this original equipment. Furthermore, we are given 
a mechanism of a certain sensitivity and this sensi- 
tivity cannot be increased directly. All that can be 
done is to make the best use of the mechanism as 
it is given to us. Individual differences in sensi- 
tivity are relatively fixed, and in each case mark 
the limits of efficiency beyond which the individual 
cannot go, however great his training. 

2.— Another characteristic of our original equip- 
ment is that out of all of the stimuli which affect our 
sense organs, certain ones will come clearly into con- 
sciousness while others will be crowded out, This 
means that we are born with a tendency to pay 
attention to certain kinds of stimuli in preference 
to others, or that we naturally attend to some kinds 
of objects. This natural attention is of great im- 
portance, for it forms the foundation of all of the 



28 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

highest forms of attention. If it be lacking there is 
no means by which the behavior of the individual 
may be modified. Moreover, we are born with the 
possibility of a certain strength of attention, and it 
is the difference in this native attention strength 
which is responsible for much of the difference in 
accomplishment of different individuals. For in- 
stance, according to some authorities, that which 
makes the musician or the artist or the mathemati- 
cian is, among other causes, the difference in the 
character and intensity of his original attentiveness 
rather than the fact that he has inherited some 
specific ability directly. 

3. — Some of the stimuli which cause sensations 
and make us attend affect us pleasantly and some 
affect us unpleasantly. There is a feeling of one 
kind or another which accompanies most of our sen- 
sations. Thus a bitter taste is naturally unpleasant, 
as anyone can discover who tries to feed something 
bitter to a very young baby. The way in which, 
during the course of evolution, certain stimuli have 
come to produce these unpleasant conscious states 
is interesting to speculate upon but does not alter 
the facts. What interests us more than the feeling 
is the behavior that accompanies or follows the 
feelings. In the presence of unpleasant stimuli we 
naturally respond so as to get rid of the unpleasant, 
and the responses continue in varying form until 
this result is accomplished. This variety of re- 
sponse which follows upon the receipt of unpleasant 



INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 29 

stimuli in the effort to get rid of them, and npon 
the pleasant in seeking to retain them, forms the 
foundation of all modification of the instinctive ten- 
dencies, which we have said constitutes learning. 
Furthermore, as will be shown later, the strength 
of one's memory for objects or experiences depends 
among other things on the type of feelings they 
arouse, hence the importance of arousing the proper 
feeling tone in connection with experiences to be 
attended to or remembered. 

4. — We are said to have a natural tendency to be 
active both mentally and physically. The specific 
character of our activity may be and usually is 
determined by various factors in our environment, 
but the activity itself is an inherited tendency. There 
is no such thing as laziness, strictly speaking. To 
refuse to be active is a symptom of defect or disease, 
lowered bodily tone, improper nourishment or the 
like. Laziness, however, is not so much inactivity 
as activity in a wrong or useless direction, as judged 
by social or ethical standards. 

5. — Of all of the stimuli which affect our sense 
organs, are attended to, and cause a pleasant or 
unpleasant reaction, some leave a permanent effect, 
are remembered, and others are forgotten. This 
fact like sensitiveness, is taken so much for granted 
that its great importance impresses us only when 
some abnormality appears. Eetentiveness depends 
upon a fundamental characteristic of the nervous 
system, its impressibility, which is not subject to 



30 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

improvement, according to James and others. Thus 
one's possibilities of memory are fixed by his hered- 
ity, although his actual accomplishments within this 
limit may depend on education and other factors. 

In addition to these five fundamental facts of 
inheritance, there are a number of more specific 
reactions to specific situations in our environment, 
and it is to these that the term "instinct" is com- 
monly applied. As stated earlier, we are interested 
in them because of their great strength and influence 
upon all of our behavior. For a full discussion of 
these tendencies the reader is referred to special 
texts on the subject. However, a few of them will 
be briefly described. 

1. — The instinct of self-preservation is a name 
given to a group of tendencies to action which pro- 
tect the individual. In this group would be included 
the food-taking tendencies, and all sorts of protec- 
tive movements, such as putting out the hand when 
falling. The flight reaction accompanied by the 
mental state of fear is the tendency to protect one's 
self from dangerous objects. When the flight reac- 
tion is inhibited from any cause, the mental state 
may still be present and in very intense form. When- 
ever stimuli, which instinctively provoke a fear re- 
sponse, are presented to an individual, one may be 
sure of a strong reaction on the part of the recipient. 
To take an example from the business world, any 
advertisement which works upon the instinctive fear 
of disease or death will be successful in producing 



INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY SI 

some kind of a reaction, e. g., the recommendation 
of overshoes to prevent grippe, or the immediate 
use of dioxogen to prevent blood poisoning and 
death. 

2. — Curiosity. — The appeal to one's curiosity is 
a powerful stimulus to action observed in both man 
and the animals. Sometimes, indeed, it is so power- 
ful as to compete with the instinct of self-preserva- 
tion. In cases like this an animal will risk its life 
in order to satisfy its curiosity. Animals are often 
caught by appealing to this instinctive tendency tQ 
examine or investigate. The makers of grab bags 
and prize packages well know the power of this in- 
stinct in children, and many manufacturers seem to 
assume that it is just as strong in the case of adults. 
Modified and controlled by experience, this same 
curiosity forms the driving force of the scientific 
investigator. The point of importance for us is 
that it is a factor that must be taken into account 
in explaining the behavior of human beings, whether 
children or adults ; and, further, that persons differ 
in the strength of this instinctive tendency to inves- 
tigate and examine. 

3. — Collecting Instinct. — The collecting instinct in 
animals is well illustrated in the case of the wood- 
rat cited by James : 

I found the outside of the nest to be composed en- 
tirely of spikes, all laid with symmetry, so as to present 
the points of the nails outward. In the center of this 
mass was the nest, composed of finely divided fibers of 



32 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

hemp-packing. Interlaced with the spikes were the fol- 
lowing: about two dozen knives, forks and spoons; all the 
butcher's knives, three in number; a large carving knife, 
fork and steel; several large plugs of tobacco ... an old 
purse containing some silver, matches and tobacco; nearly 
all the small tools from the tool closets, with several large 
augers ... all of which must have been transported some 
distance, as they were originally stored in different parts 
of the house. The outside casing of a silver watch was 
disposed of in one part of the pile, the glass of the 
same watch in another, and the works in still another. 

The boy's pocket which contains such, a variety 
of objects also bears witness of the force of this 
collecting tendency. Nearly everyone has at some 
time or other had a hobby for collecting some quite 
useless article, coins, buttons, stamps, tobacco tags 
and the like. To the force of this instinctive ten- 
dency, more than to the actual value of these objects, 
is due the great popularity of trading stamps, sou- 
venirs, coupons, etc. 

Abnormal development of this tendency shows 
itself in the hoarding of gold by a miser, in the 
thefts of the kleptomaniac, and the collecting of 
absurd articles by inmates of institutions for the 
insane. 

4.— Pugnacity. — The fighting instinct in human 
beings, on account of the power of social order, 
does not commonly show itself in physical combat. 
But the love of combat may take the milder form 
of watching a cock fight, dog fight, or a pugilistic 
contest. Most frequently it shows itself as emula- 



INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY S3 

tion and rivalry of a more kindly sort, and is a 
healthy stimulus to do one's best and better than 
one's neighbor. The slavery of fashion is due in 
part to this instinct ; and the limits to which people 
will go to outdo each other in following the latest 
styles, and in owning the latest model of an auto- 
mobile show the intensity of this instinct. When 
the rivalry consists in trying to excel one's own past 
record, it becomes one of the most valuable tools 
of education and industry. 

5. — Sociability. — There is a very definite tendency 
among animals and human beings to gather into 
groups and to react unpleasantly toward solitude. 
One of the most terrible punishments to which a 
human being can be subjected is solitary confine- 
ment. Many animals become terror stricken when 
separated from their fellows and give evidence of 
joy when returned to them. The great popularity 
of seaside resorts, circuses, football and baseball 
games, is due in large part to the crowds and the 
consequent stimulus to this instinctive tendency. 
Who would enjoy a great football game if he had 
to stand alone in the cold and watch it? The thea- 
ter managers, too, know well the influence of a full 
house upon the popularity of a play. According to 
MacDougall, those of us who explain our enjoyment 
of crowds as a purely intellectual interest in people 
are really misinterpreting an attempt to satisfy our 
sociability instinct. 

An abnormal development of this instinct is 



34 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

counted among the fears. The fear of being alone, 
the fear of being in open places, such as street cross- 
ings, may be considered as a Variation of this in- 
stinct. The latter is generally relieved or absent in 
the presence of other people. 

6. — Imitation. — Although a tendency to imitate 
which would enable one to repeat what he sees being 
done by another and what he had before been un- 
able to do, is denied by many present-day psycholo- 
gists as a powerful factor in learning new acts, still 
the term "imitation" is of use in describing certain 
tendencies in human conduct. The quarrel is as to 
whether one's learning is in the last analysis re- 
ducible to imitation. This question will be dealt 
with in connection with the problem of learning. 
The so-called psychology of the crowd which at- 
tempts to account for what a crowd will do that one 
isolated individual will not do, is the psychology of 
imitation. This, of course, is not a matter of learn- 
ing to do something new, but merely a determination 
of which act of a great number of learned ones shall 
be carried on at a given time. The strength of this 
tendency is well recognized by the business world, 
which makes it the basis of many of its appeals to. 
purchasers, and by industry, which uses it as a 
stimulus to increased activity. To take the last- 
named case, it is a co m mon thing in industries where 
efficiency is the aim, to put a good man in the midst 
of a group of slower individuals on the assumption 



INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 35 

that the poorer ones will imitate the better and thus 
be urged to increased activity. 

7.' — There is a group of instinctive tendencies 
called racial, on account of their value to the race 
or species rather than to the individual. These are 
very powerful and deep-seated tendencies to action 
and must be considered in a study of behavior. They 
are generally characterized by unconsciousness of 
the end to which they lead. In animals they are 
the most common and powerful instincts, comprising 
the nest-building and the egg-laying instincts, the 
care of the young, the protection of the group at the 
cost of the individual life, and the procreation of 
offspring. In man they are curbed and veiled by 
social laws and customs, but in the form of the 
maternal instinct and the sex instincts, love and 
jealousy, they are powerful stimulants to action 
and of importance in the determination of behavior. 
The willingness of a soldier to die for the sake of 
his country, when all the results of training and 
tradition are subtracted, has, by some authorities, 
been attributed to one of these racial instincts. 

II. Inheritance peculiar to specific races.— Are 
there characteristics of mind and behavior peculiar 
to the different races of man, which need to be con- 
sidered from the point of view of efficiency? "We 
hear much nowadays about hereditary racial differ- 
ences — that the Germans represent a race with cer- 
tain characters, the French with others, the English 
with others, etc., with practically no attempt to sep- 



36 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

arate the facts of inheritance from the effects of ed- 
ucation, customs and general environmental condi- 
tions. The actual experimental studies have been 
made on rather simple functions, such as sensory 
acuity, motor ability (speed of reaction, speed of tap- 
ping, etc.), and simple judgments (form board test, 
etc.). Although these traits are simple, yet they are 
characteristics in which peoples are supposed in the 
popular mind to differ. For instance, certain races 
are thought to have remarkably keen vision, others 
are said to be very slow, others very quick in their 
reactions. The upshot of all of the experimental 
tests seems to be that the racial differences in fun- 
damental qualities independent of training are 
slight. There is in every case, even in sensory 
acuity and speed of reaction, much variability 
among the members of the same race, so that in the 
race making the best records there are always some 
individuals who do as poorly as some of the best 
individuals in the poorer races. Professor Wood- 
worth in discussing the results of the form board 
test, which is a fair test of intelligence and little 
dependent on specific training, and which he tried 
on a number of different races, says : 

As between whites, Indians, Eskimos, Ainus, Filipinos 
and Singalese, the average differences were small and 
much overlapping occurred. As between these groups 
however, and the Igorot and Negrito from the Philippines 
and a few reputed Pigmies from the Congo, the average 
differences were great and the overlapping was small. . . . 



INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 37 

If the results could be taken at their face value they 
would indicate differences of intelligence between races, 
giving such races as the Pigmy and the Negrito a low 
station as compared with that of most mankind. The 
fairness of the test is however not beyond question; it 
may have been of a more unfamiliar sort to these wild 
hunting folk than to the more settled groups. This crumb 
is, at any rate, about all the testing psychologist has 
yet to offer on the question of racial differences in in- 
telligence. 

When one takes the full meaning of this statement, 
namely, that between the highest and the lowest 
races there are no differences which have up to this 
time been positively established, it is scarcely to be 
expected that differences of any importance would 
be found among the higher races themselves. 

More comparative measurements have been made 
of the negroes and whites than any other pair of 
races. Galton believed that, making allowance for 
difference of environment, the negroes were inferior 
to Europeans by about one-eighth of the difference 
between Aristotle and the lowest idiot. The meas- 
urements made by Mayo of negroes and whites of 
the same social standing in the New York City 
public schools is worth mentioning in this connec- 
tion. Although the two groups were perhaps not 
exactly comparable on account of the different social 
status of the two races, the difference is not very 
considerable. It has been estimated that the negroes 
represented a somewhat more rigid selection than 
the whites. Mayo studied the academic records of 



38 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

the two groups, and concluded that in academic 
achievement only three-tenths of the negroes reached 
a position attained by one-half of the whites. This 
means that the range from zero up to a grade of 
70 would include 50% of the whites and 70% of the 
blacks. Further, he found the variability of the 
negroes to be slightly less than that of the whites. 
This would be the more important finding, if the 
difference in variability were large enough to be 
significant. It would mean that among the whites 
there would be a greater chance for exceptional in- 
dividuals to appear, both good and bad ; that is, one 
would expect the men who became greatest to be 
white rather than black. 

So far as applied psychology is interested in the 
question of racial differences, the following state- 
ment made by Thorndike will serve as a satisfactory 
answer : 

From all these facts the student may make his own 
estimate of the original mental differences of races, and 
learn the need of more actual measurements of race dif- 
ferences and of intelligence in interpreting them. My 
own estimate is that greater differences will be found in 
the case of the so-called "higher" traits, such as the 
capacity to associate and to analyze, thinking with parts 
or elements, and originality, than in the case of sensory 
and sensori-motor traits, but that there will be very great 
overlapping. . . . Even if the differences were larger than 
these (such differences as the above statements show) the 
practical precept for education would remain unchanged. 
It is, of course, that selection by race of original natures 



INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 39 

to be educated is nowhere nearly as effective as selection 
of the superior individuals regardless of race. There is 
much overlapping, and the differences in original nature 
within the same race are, except in extreme cases, many 
times as great as the differences between races as a 
whole. 



CHAPTEE IH 

FAMILY INHERITANCE 

I. Physical Inheritance.— In addition to the origi- 
nal characteristics common to the human species and 
to the race to which one belongs, every individual 
possesses certain traits by virtue of having a certain 
immediate ancestry. The influence of ancestry upon 
a number of physical characteristics such as eye and 
hair color, height, etc., has been worked out. Mental 
resemblances are not so definitely determined, but 
those which have been found, supported by the cer- 
tainty of physical inheritance, lead us to expect that 
one's immediate ancestry is of considerable impor- 
tance in determining what his mental qualities shall 
be. 

It should not be expected that, if heredity is a 
real factor, two persons of the same ancestry should 
have original natures which are identical in every 
respect, except as a different environment changed 
them. This may be easily proved by taking physical 
characters which cannot be affected by environment, 
e. g., color of the eyes. The coefficient of correla- 
tion of two brothers in eye color is only .52, on the 
principle that if they were always identical the co- 

40 



FAMILY INHERITANCE 41 

efficient would be 1.00 and that if there were only 
a chance relation between them, the correlation 
would be zero. To make the relation still clearer, if 
every person who had a brother with blue eyes had 
blue eyes also, and if every person who had a brother 
with gray eyes had gray eyes also, and so on with 
every color, then the coefficient would be 1.00. But 
if one with blue eyes might have a brother with any 
eye color, then the correlation would be zero. 

Take height as another illustration. Children of 
parents who are three inches above the average in 
height, will average only about two inches above 
the average, i. e., they will not be identical in height 
with their parents but will tend toward the average 
of the whole race. Thorndike describes the reason 
for these variations as follows : 

In all thought of inheritance, physical or mental, one 
should always remember that children spring, not from 
their parents' bodies and minds, but from the germs of 
those parents. The qualities of the germs of a man are 
what we should know in order to prophesy directly the 
traits of his children. One quality these germs surely 
possess. They are variable. Discarding syntax and ele- 
gance for emphasis, we may say that the germs of a six- 
foot man include some six-foot germs, some six-foot-one 
germs, some six-foot-two, some five-foot-eleven, some five- 
foot-ten, etc. Each human being gives to the future, not 
himself, but a variable group of germs. This hypothesis 
of the variability of the germs explains the fact that 
short parents may have tall sons, gifted parents stupid 
sons, 1 the same parents unlike sons. 



42 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Other well established relations between relatives 
in regard to physical traits are: 



Trait 


Individuals 


Correlation 


Height 


father and son 


.30 


a' 


brother and brother 


.50 


Cephalic index 


it tt tt 


.50 


Hair color 


tt tt tt 


.60 



These figures show very clearly that one owes his 
physical characteristics to a certain extent to his 
immediate ancestry. 

Consider next a characteristic that comes a little 
nearer to being mental, namely deafness. It has 
been found from statistical studies that out of every 
four persons who have one brother or sister congeni- 
tally deaf, one is deaf, while of those persons who 
have neither brothers nor sisters born deaf, only one 
out of a thousand is deaf. This means that if one 
is of the same immediate ancestry as a person con- 
genially deaf, he is about two hundred and fifty 
times more likely to be deaf than a person who is 
of the same ancestry as a hearing person. 

II. General and Special Mental Inheritance.— A 
number of statistical studies have been made which 
tend to show that general mental and moral traits 
are inherited. In fact, this is so generally believed 
that only one recent study need be mentioned as an 
illustration. Thorndike studied 168 families, each 
having only two children. In 138 of these families 



FAMILY INHERITANCE 43 

both children were " accelerated' ' or bright, or both 
were retarded or dull. The remainder of the group, 
80 families, had only one of the two children bright 
and the other dull. That is, to put the conclusion 
into a single statement, there is a very high corre- 
lation between brothers and sisters in intelligence. 

Francis Galton has made a statistical study of the 
inheritance of specific mental abilities and found 
that the abilities required for success as a judge, 
statesman, minister, commander, poet, artist and 
scientific man, are inherited. But the nature of his 
data makes him unable to make exact allowance for 
influences of training and environmental influences. 
Consequently, his figures might really show general 
intelligence to be inherited and the form of its ex- 
pression to be dependent upon environment. 

Other investigators, among them F. A. Woods 
and Havelock Ellis, have made similar statistical 
studies and conclude that there is inheritance of 
even such qualities as temper, common sense, and 
the like, but these reports are also subject to the 
same complicating influence of environment. 

Thorndike experimented upon a large number of 
pairs of twins with many of the simple mental tests 
to determine similarity of mental ability, and found 
the following coefficients of correlation as compared 
with those for brothers and sisters, and unrelated 
children, the figures representing the combined re- 
sults of all of the tests : 



44 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Unrelated children 00 correlation 

Brothers and sisters 40 correlation 

Twins 80 correlation 

The influence of inheritance upon a very specific 
mental quality, namely, spelling ability, has been 
tested experimentally, although here there is some 
difficulty in separating the influence of heredity from 
that of environment. Earle studied the spelling 
ability of 180 pairs of brothers and sisters, who had 
uniform school training, and found a correlation 
between brother and sister of .50. This means that 
if one child deviated by a certain amount from the 
average child in spelling ability, his brother or sister 
would deviate from the average child just half as 
much, that is, he would resemble his brother or sister 
to that extent. 

After due allowance has been made for the influ- 
ence of environment, Thorndike gives it as his opin- 
ion that "what knowledge we have . . . supports 
the view that a man's original nature is organized 
by inheritance in great detail, particular traits and 
complexes of traits showing similarity between 
father and son or brother and brother. " In another 
connection, the same author, in discussing the value 
of entrance examinations in college, emphasizes the 
importance of heredity. He states that one can get 
a better idea of what a student can do in his senior 
year of college, by finding what sort of records his 
older brother had made than by taking his own 
entrance examination record. 



FAMILY INHERITANCE 45 

The belief in the inheritance of mental charac- 
teristics has received considerable support from the 
recent studies of mental defectives. It is always 
easier to trace the transmission of defects than nor- 
mal traits, because of the more obtrusive character 
of the former. Especially clear is the inheritance of 
the defects resulting from incomplete or retarded 
structural development of the nervous system, giv- 
ing such deviations from the normal as weak-mind- 
edness, imbecility, idiocy, etc. Only one study need 
be cited here. 

Goddard has made a study of mental defect in two 
lines coming from related ancestral stocks. A man 
of good stock had an illegitimate child by a weak- 
minded girl and then later married a woman of good 
stock who bore children. The descendants of the 
same father by two different mothers have been 
traced for a number of generations. In the case of 
the descendants from the offspring of the weak- 
minded girl there is a continuous series of incom- 
petents, drunkards, drug users, prostitutes, etc., 
while the other branch of the family shows a long 
line of people of good standing. 

What makes this case of particular value is the 
fact that both lines of descendants continued to live 
in the same neighborhood for generations. The 
history of the two families shows the transmissi- 
bility of mental defect, and more than this, it shows 
that what is transmitted is here a general mental 
deficiency which may show itself in a great variety 



46 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

of ways depending on the specific conditions affect- 
ing different persons. 

The inheritance of insanity is more difficult to 
demonstrate than that of feeble-mindedness, but 
numerous statistical studies tend to show that this, 
too, may be transmitted. To give one case, Mott 
has analyzed 18 families, in which both parents 
suffered from insanity, or nervous breakdown, or 
were suicides, and finds that 39% of the offspring 
were affected. In 90 families where only one parent 
was insane, only 9.6% of the offspring were affected. 

Granting now that certain physical characteristics 
and conditions of high and low intelligence and pos- 
sibly some more particular mental traits are inherit- 
able, let us consider whether any specific tendencies 
of another kind can be inherited, such as particular 
diseases, the drink habit, drug habit, and the like. 
The balance of opinion today is against this sort 
of inheritance, using the term in its strict sense. 
But it is granted that a child may be born afflicted 
with disease as a result of parental infection before 
birth, or may be born with a constitution so low in 
general vitality that stimuli will be sought of the 
drug or alcoholic sort, in order to enable it to com- 
pete in the struggle for existence. Or again it may 
be born with a low vitality, with the result that it is 
very susceptible to disease 

From the standpoint of any one individual life and 
its efficiency, the question of actual inheritance of 
disease may not seem to have so much importance, 



FAMILY INHERITANCE 47 

since when one finds himself afflicted with a disease 
or habit no distinction between real inheritance and 
prenatal influence can be made. But when one con- 
siders the chances of transmission to future genera- 
tions, then the distinction between inherited and 
acquired conditions becomes quite important. For 
example, if a mother is afflicted with tuberculosis, 
and gives birth to a child, the child may become 
infected with the tubercle bacillus, by way of the 
blood of the mother, although such cases are thought 
to be extremely rare. Infection of the embryo with 
syphilis is, on the contrary, quite common. Both 
of these cases are examples of prenatal infection 
and not real inheritance. What most frequently 
happens is that the embryo is interfered with in 
its development so that the child is born with a 
weakened constitution, with its vitality below par, 
and on this account may be highly susceptible to the 
tubercle bacillus or any other disease germ. An 
individual born in this condition is far better off 
than one endowed by heredity with a specific disease 
or habit would be. By proper living and proper 
selection of occupation, the former may escape many 
of the ill-effects of his inheritance, while the latter, 
being born with the condition, must either be cured 
or be doomed. 

From the point of view of the production and 
development of efficient individuals, therefore, the 
question of family inheritance is of great impor- 
tance. It demands that only individuals with the 



48 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

possibility of efficient lives be born. This means 
such control of marriages as now exists in many 
states, namely, the refusal of marriage licenses in 
the absence of a clean bill of health and evidence 
of normal mentality from the contracting parties. 
Every state but the following eleven have enacted 
laws preventing marriage in case of one or more of 
the various kinds of deficiency, including imbecility, 
feeble-mindedness, epilepsy, idiocy and venereal 
diseases : 

Alabama Louisiana Tennessee 

Arizona Missouri Texas 

Colorado New Hampshire Alaska 

Florida New Mexico 

The production of none but efficient individuals 
means further that individuals known to be defective 
shall be prevented from having offspring, a matter 
also regulated in some states by law. Asexualiza- 
tion, or the performance of operations to prevent 
the possibility of offspring, is provided for by law 
in the following states, in case of various kinds of 
defectiveness : 

California Nevada 

Connecticut New Jersey 

Indiana New York 

Iowa North Dakota 

Kansas Washington 

Michigan Wisconsin 



FAMILY INHERITANCE 49 

In the following states bills have been proposed 
but lost : 

Arizona Vermont 

Illinois Virginia 

Minnesota 

In Oregon a bill was passed by the Legislature and 
killed by a referendum vote of the people. In the 
states where there are laws, they usually begin some- 
what as follows: "Whereas heredity plays a most 
important part in the transmission of crime, idiocy 
and imbecility. ..." The following is an extract 
from a law concerning the prevention of offspring 
in the state of Iowa, which may serve as an example 
of the others : 

It shall be the duty of the state board of parole, with 
the managing officer and the physician of each public 
institution in the state, entrusted with the care and cus- 
tody of criminals, rapists, idiots, feeble-minded, imbeciles, 
lunatics, drunkards, drug fiends, epileptics, syphilitics, 
moral and sexual perverts, and diseased and degenerate 
persons, and they are hereby authorized and directed to, 
annually or oftener, examine into the mental and physical 
condition, the records and family history of the inmates 
of such institutions, with a view of determining whether 
it is improper or inadvisable to allow any of such in- 
mates to procreate and to judge of such matters. If a 
majority of them decide that a procreation by any of 
such inmates would produce children with a tendency to 
disease, deformity, crime, insanity, feeble-mindedness, 
idiocy, imbecility, epilepsy or alcoholism, or if the physical 



50 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

or mental condition of any such inmate will probably be 
materially improved thereby, or if such inmate is an 
epileptic or syphilitic, or gives evidence, while an inmate 
of such institution, that he or she is a moral or sexual 
pervert, then the physician of the institution, or one 
selected by him, shall perform the operation of vasectomy 
or ligation of the fallopian tubes, as the case may be, 
upon such person. Provided that such operation shall be 
performed upon every convict or inmate of such institu- 
tion who has been convicted of prostitution or violation 

of the law as laid down in 

or who has been twice convicted of other sexual offenses, 

including soliciting, as defined in 

or who has been twice convicted of a felony, and each such 
convict or inmate shall be subjected to this same operation 
of vasectomy or ligation of the fallopian tubes, as the 
case may be, by the physician of the institution or one 
selected by him. 

The production of efficient individuals means the 
adoption of many other radical means of improving 
the human stock. It means that the use of the above 
mentioned radical measures must be extended be- 
yond persons who are found in institutions, to in- 
clude those incompetents and defectives who are at 
large. The type of defective known as a moron, 
seldom put in institutions, and yet incurably defi- 
cient, morally and intellectually, represents the 
group among whom offspring might be prohibited. 

Here is a field where applied psychology deter- 
mines the means of attaining efficiency. Whether 
the end or the purpose to which the means leads 
is right or not must be settled otherwise. It is 



FAMILY INHERITANCE 51 

obvious that today the means of obtaining efficiency 
which depends upon the determination of what kind 
of individuals shall be born, conflicts to a certain 
extent with public sentiment. It is justifiable to 
proceed slowly in such matters, for we are con- 
stantly reminded that many of the great characters 
of history were defective in one or other of the ways 
mentioned in the preceding pages. But there is no 
doubt that the pressing character of the problem of 
deficiency will cause a more widespread limitation 
of production of possible burdens and menaces to 
society. 



CHAPTER IV 

EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 

We have previously discussed the tendencies of 
the individual toward activity before he comes into 
contact with his environment. Since the necessary 
reactions to environment begin at birth or even 
before, we have been forced to speak of possibilities 
of certain kinds of behavior or tendencies to action, 
meaning simply that the first time a stimulus affects 
the organism a particular response will follow. How 
are these original tendencies to action modified as a 
result of environmental influences, or to put the case 
more simply, how does one learn? We have said 
that all situations naturally produce a satisfying or 
an annoying state of mind in the individual and that 
the organism tends to make movements of random 
character to retain the satisfying state or to change 
the annoying into a satisfying state; further, that 
there is a tendency for the reactions resulting in a 
satisfying state to produce a more lasting effect 
upon the nervous system than those reactions which 
produce an annoying state. Hence, by virtue of 
these original characteristics of the organism, we 

52 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 53 

have a mechanism by which certain kinds of move- 
ments may be selected out of a number of more or 
less random movements and become connected or as- 
sociated with a certain objective situation. If the 
stimulus produces a reaction which is at once pleas- 
ant, this form of response becomes easier to repeat 
when that stimulus is again received. If the stimu- 
lus produces a response which is accompanied by an 
annoying state, then the random movements occur; 
and the response which finally produces the satisfy- 
ing state ip the one which is most easily repeated 
when the stimulus is next received. Consequently, 
learning may be reduced to the formation of connec- 
tions between situations or stimuli and responses or 
reactions. It consists in (a) the strengthening of 
some original responses by repeating them, and (b) 
weakening certain other original responses to a 
given situation and substituting other responses 
which in turn grow stronger with use. 

For convenience of treatmen! a distinction may be 
made between the case in which the response consists 
of a bodily movement and that in which it consists 
of a change in consciousness, but fundamentally 
there is no distinction. In one case the objective 
change is the object of interest and in the other it 
is the subjective or mental change. The underlying 
nerve activity is of the same character in both cases. 
There are some investigators who assert that every 
response to a stimulus is a movement response, 
which may or may not be accompanied by conscious- 



54 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ness. Pillsbury, in speaking of the relation between 
habit and memory, says : 

Habits, as was seen, are due to the establishment of 
connections between sensory and motor neurones by a 
change that takes place at the synapse. After these have 
been frequently connected, the stimulus tends to reinstate 
the act whenever it appears. Eetention of ideas has 
exactly the same basis. The cells involved in the ideas also 
act together, and this activity produces changes in the 
synapses. "Whenever one of the ideas presents itself 
again, the other is, or tends to be, reinstated. Not merely 
the cortical elements are rearoused in memory, but the 
whole sensori-motor tract may be partially active. This 
brings the process still nearer to habit. Memory is an 
habitual response in which the greater part of the activity 
is in the cortex. The activities of the sense-organ and 
the muscles are subordinated to the central processes, 
while in habit the whole sensori-motor tract is active in 

approximately the same degree. 

i 

i 

Efficiency in Habit Formation and the Acquisition 
of Skill.— The objective type of learning is variously 
termed habit, practice, or acquisition of skill. A 
great mass of experimental work has been done both 
on animals and on man to determine the fundamen- 
tal laws of habit formation. A good example of 
learning in animals is the case cited by Thorndike 
of a house cat learning to escape from a pen to get 
food. 

If we take a box twenty by fifteen inches, replace its 
cover and front side by bars an inch apart and make 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 55 

in this front side a door arranged so as to fall open when 
a wooden button inside is turned from a vertical to a 
horizontal position, we shall have means to observe such 
[learning process]. A kitten, three to six months old, 
if put in this box, when hungry, a bit of fish being left 
outside, reacts as follows: It tries to squeeze through 
between the bars, claws at the bars and at loose things 
in and out of the box, stretches its paws out between the 
bars, and bites at its confining walls. Some one of all of 
these promiscuous clawings, squeezings, and bitings turns 
round the wooden button, and the kitten gains freedom 
and food. By repeating the experience again and again, 
the animal gradually comes to omit all the useless claw- 
ings, and the like and to manifest 'only the particular im- 
pulse (e. g., to claw hard at the top of the button with 
the paw, or to push against one side of it with the nose), 
which has resulted successfully. It turns the button 
around without delay whenever put into the box. It has 
formed an association between the situation, confinement 
in a box of a certain appearance, and the response of claw- 
ing at a certain part of that box in a certain definite way. 
Popularly speaking, it has learned to open a door by tun- 
ing a button. 

"Learning by trial and error " is the name given 
to this sort of learning. 

Much of the learning of human beings is of this 
crude sort, especially the learning of infants and 
young children. But even in adults the same selec- 
tion of the correct movement from a number of more 
or less chance series of movements is the basis of 
learning. A young child who is learning to write 
will make many random movements with his hand 



56 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

and many useless movements of other parts of his 
body, such as gritting his teeth, scraping his feet 
on the floor, and sliding around in his chair. When 
some of the movements produce a satisfying effect, 
through an approximation to the copy, or the ap- 
proval of the teacher, these movements get the ad- 
vantage over all others, so that when another at- 
tempt is made, the correct movements will tend to 
occur sooner. Finally, when learning is complete, 
only those movements which aid directly in reaching 
the desired result are retained. 

The results of experimental studies of the learn- 
ing process are summarized in the following state- 
ments : 

1. — A series of more or less diffuse and random 
movements lead to chance success. There must be 
a cause for these random movements. It may be 
only the instinctive tendency to be active, or hunger, 
or interest in some specific task such as learning to 
write, or to solve a puzzle. Interest is the impor- 
tant factor in the learning of adults. 

2. — The pleasurable effect tends to stamp in the 
successful movement more permanently than the 
unsuccessful, so that when the procedure is repeated, 
some of the incorrect and unnecessary movements 
are dropped off and the right one occurs sooner. In 
terms of time, there is a gradual reduction of the 
time necessary to perform the act. 

3. — The influence of unpleasant effects must not 
be overlooked. Stimuli which are annoying lead nat- 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 57 

urally to activity that will continue until a pleasur- 
able result occurs. Thus, if it does nothing more 
than lead to activity, the unpleasantness would aid 
in the learning process, since movements of this type 
are just the sort that give opportunity for chance 
success. Compared with the direct effect of pleas- 
urable states in establishing a habit, the unpleasant 
states are sometimes called secondary or indirect 
aids to learning. 

4. — Learning, with the consequent reduction in 
time of performance, is in many cases due not to 
making the same movements faster and faster, but 
to making entirely different movements. That is, 
the habit when formed may consist of a set of move- 
ments entirely different from those employed in the 
beginning. Learning is thus primarily a process 
of selection of movements. 

5. — To get a proper conception of the changes 
which occur in learning, the whole process must be 
conceived as taking place in the nervous system, i. e., 
it must be treated as a physiological change. It re- 
solves itself into a modification of certain conduction 
units in the nervous system so that a certain stimu- 
lus will lead directly to a certain movement. Thus 
any factors which tend to establish such paths of 
conduction in the nervous system are of use in learn- 
ing. Of these factors, two of the most important 
are repetition of the stimulus and increase in the 
magnitude of the stimulu^" 

6. — It is generally agreed that learning must be 



58 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

spontaneous. And this conclusion naturally follows 
if our explanation of learning be correct. If one is 
to learn an act of skill, he must make the movements 
himself rather than watch another make them, or 
rather than have his own limbs passively moved by 
another. Since training is a preparation of sensori- 
motor conduction paths, the complete paths must be 
exercised, and this occurs only in active movement. 
Guiding a child's hand in teaching him to write 
would then be an inefficient method of instruction. 

The acquisition of skill depends upon the same 
conditions as those just cited. Very careful and de- 
tailed studies have been made upon the acquisition 
of skill in typewriting, in telegraphy, in target shoot- 
ing and other similar activities. The most recent 
and complete of these experimental studies is that 
on typewriting. In^this experiment every error 
made and the time required for every single opera- 
tion of the machine were recorded during the course 
of the learning process. The introspections of the 
learners were recorded at frequent intervals to aid 
in interpreting the causes of improvement. The fol- 
lowing conclusions to be drawn from this work sup- 
plement those derived from the study of the more 
elementary form of learning described above. 

7.— The methods by which improvement comes are 
seldom conscious, — one falls into the right way of 
doing things without knowing what the change is. 
Anyone who has learned to play tennis, golf, to skate 
or to swim, will recall that very often he did not 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 59 

know or could not discover just what constituted 
the modification in his procedure which changed the 
unsuccessful into the successful trials. The reason 
that the successful variations may not be conscious 
is that the learning consists in changes in the physio- 
logical mechanism, hence it would be impossible for 
one to be conscious of anything but the outward re- 
sults of the change. In the case of typewriting, cer- 
tain steps in the process of improvement were dis- 
covered. The improvement has been attributed to 
the "formation of higher units" or the acquisition 
of larger and larger groups of movement habits. 
These are series or chains of movements which are 
set going with as little conscious control as one 
single movement requires in the untrained person. 
Thus a skilled typist writes whole groups of letters 
and even words with one conscious effort, rather 
than one letter at a time, although each letter always 
requires a specific movement. So it is that an expert 
operator can move his fingers in writing faster than 
they can be followed by the eye, or even faster than 
they can be followed in thought. 

8. — After a certain set of responses has once been 
developed, it is often of value to become conscious 
of them in order that they may be repeated the more 
readily when needed. For example, the ability to 
write certain combinations of letters on the type- 
writer without attention to the letters comes gradu- 
ally, and one is surprised to find himself able to do 
it. To use such higher units efficiently the writer 



60 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

should be conscious of these newly acquired habits, 
so that he may distribute his attention to the great- 
est advantage. 

9. — Improvement often results from the elimina- 
tion of bad habits, the dropping off of useless move- 
ments. In most cases these, too, are unconscious 
change^, which may be discovered after they have 
been established. Watching a beginner learn any 
complicated act will reveal a great number of use- 
less and retarding movements, which must be elimi- 
nated as practice continues. The greatest efficiency 
results from learning under such guidance that only 
right habits can become fixed. The value of this is 
especially clear in typewriting, where one's common 
sense will not guide him into the most economical 
procedure, and where if left to himself, one will form 
habits which must be broken with more or less diffi- 
culty before further progress can be made. It is 
largely on account of the value of forming right 
habits from the very beginning of the learning proc- 
ess that instruction has come to play such a large 
part in the scientific management program. 

10. — The typewriting experiments show the great 
value of incentive in helping one to improve. The 
promise of promotion, the promotion itself, or a 
desired reward of any kind, will often give the 
needed spur to one's energy. In the case of teleg- 
raphy, men will remain for years at a fixed degree 
of efficiency, until some unusual stimulus will cause 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 61 

a striking increase in speed. Obviously, such spurs 
to effort come relatively seldom, but there is a source 
of interest and incentive available to all learners. 
That is the incentive which comes from competing 
with one's own past record. Such self -competition 
has most of the good points of actual competition 
and rivalry with one 's fellows — which have a strong 
instinctive basis, — with none of its bad points. Any 
person who will carefully keep a record of a series 
of his trials in acquiring skill, either in terms of 
amount of work done, or time required to do it, and 
will draw the results out in curve form will develop 
great interest in building the curve from time to 
time and noting its changes. The value of self-com- 
petition is being recognized in school work in con- 
nection with the "practice method," where such in- 
dividual records are kept by the children, and in in- 
dustrial work, where an individual works by the 
piece method and a record of his daily or hourly 
achievement serves as a strong incentive to in- 
creased effort. 

Kirby used the practice method of teaching arith- 
metic to a group of 1,300 New York City school chil- 
dren, and compared their records with children 
taught in the ordinary manner. The children were 
further compared as to length of their practice pe- 
riods. In discussing the experiment, Kirby thus em- 
phasizes the importance of knowledge of one's past 
record as an incentive: 



62 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

After a practice period was finished and pencils were 
laid down, the children were eager to tell their own scores 
and to learn the scores of others. It acted as an im- 
mediate reward and so as an incentive. . . . Just before 
beginning the second and each following practice period, 
the exact score of each child in the preceding day's prac- 
tice was read, both the number of columns worked and 
the number correct. . . . The children were told that their 
individual improvement was to be measured and they 
were shown that no matter how low or how high their 
present record, their final standing would be determined 
by the amount of gain made. They were shown that it was 
not primarily a contest among the individuals of the class 
but an effort on the part of each one to surpass his own 
previous record. The children were encouraged to com- 
pare their last record with their own previous records, and 
at times the scores were read to them in such a way 
as to indicate gains made. 

In accounting for the greater improvement in the 
group whose practice time was divided into rather 
short working periods, he says, 

The group working in shorter periods had a longer 
time in which to catch the spirit of the experiment, and 
to become enthusiastic over surpassing their previous per- 
formance. They had their own records read to them 
more times and had the incentives to intense effort re- 
peated more often. 

Experimental results indicate that there is no act, 
except a reflex, no matter how specialized the train- 
ing may have been in the course of one's occupa- 
tion, that cannot be improved by practice, under the 
conditions of the so-called "practice experiment." 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 63 

Typesetters of years of experience are able to im- 
prove considerably under practice conditions, and 
bank clerks who have added figures for years can 
make striking increases in speed in a few hours of 
self-competition. The practical application of these 
facts is obvious. 

11. — There is a "physiological limit' ' beyond 
which our bodily mechanisms will not allow us to 
go either in speed or in amount of work. Thus 
the delicacy of our sense organs limits the fineness 
of our sensory discrimination, the structure of bones 
and muscles limits our strength, and the conducting 
mechanism, including the nerve fibers and their cen- 
tral connections, limits the speed with which our 
movements may follow the stimuli or situations 
which cause them. For instance, the physiological 
limit for a movement of the finger in response to 
the stimulation of the eye by a light of moderate 
intensity is about one-tenth of a second. But in the 
great majority of cases, it is not the physiological 
limit which blocks progress. Most often it is the 
lack of sufficiently powerful incentives, the presence 
of wrong movement habits or other remediable con- 
dition. According to James, most of us get into the 
habit of living on too inefficient a plane, and could 
increase our output largely without taxing our or- 
ganism to the danger point. He says, 

Of course there are limits, the trees don't grow to the 
sky. But the plain fact remains that men the world over 



64 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

possess amounts of resource which only very exceptional 
individuals push to their extremes of use. But the very 
same individual, pushing his energies to their extreme, 
may in a vast number of cases keep the pace up day after 
day, and find no reaction of a bad sort, so long as decent 
hygienic conditions are preserved. His more active rate 
of energizing does not wreck him ; for the organism adapts 
itself, and as the rate of waste augments, augments ac- 
cordingly the rate of repair. 



Just how one may know his real limit beyond 
which it is not safe to go, will be discussed in a 
later chapter. 

Efficiency in Memory.— In distinction from the ob- 
jective form of learning or habit formation, there is 
the subjective learning or memory. This last is a 
general term commonly used to cover all such phe- 
nomena as retention, recall, association and recog- 
nition. The results of the large amount of experi- 
mental work on memory may be gathered into a few 
statements, showing the most economical methods of 
learning. We are not likely to feel the necessity for 
economy and efficiency in our mental activities, be- 
cause we do not commonly think of them as consum- 
ing energy. But when one realizes that time and 
energy are required as much as in bodily activity, 
the need for economy is apparent. 

1. — The most efficient learning consists in selecting, 
the particular type of memory adapted to a given 
kind of material and the use to which it is to be put. 
The schools in tlieir work emphasize the most diffi- 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 65 

cult kind of memory, an unaided verbatim repro- 
duction. There are certain cases that require this 
type of learning, e. g., all isolated materials such as 
the multiplication tables, and the spelling of words. 
But there are other kinds of material which should 
be easily obtainable when needed, but which need 
not be carried in the mind at all times. In such 
cases one need not learn so completely that the facts 
may be recalled at any time but only well enough 
that they may be relearned easily when needed. 
Thus most of our knowledge acquired in our school 
days has apparently gone completely from our 
minds, but only a small percentage of the original 
labor will bring it all back. Much of the education 
of the engineer, the professional man and the teacher 
is of this kind. 

Then there is much material which need be learned 
only so well that it will be recalled along with some 
other definite thing with which it has been associ- 
ated. The name of a person may be thus associated 
with the sight of his face, a telephone number with a 
particular name, a foreign word with the sight of 
the English equivalent. This type of memory re- 
quires much less effort than absolute recall and in 
its place is just as efficient. 

Some things need be remembered only when they 
themselves are present. This form of memory is 
called recognition, and it is the most economical of 
all. It consists simply in knowing a thing or being 
familiar with it, when we meet it. For instance, it 



66 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

is far more important for one to know his fountain 
pen when he sees it, to be able to use it, than to 
know all about it at other times. In what way and 
how well a thing is to be learned must depend on 
the use that is to be made of it, for economy of ef- 
fort demands that the means shall be employed 
which will be most efficient with the least expendi- 
ture of energy. 

2. — If a large quantity of material is to be learned, 
common sense will not enable one to select the most 
economical method of learning it. Experiment has 
shown that the material should be learned as a 
whole rather than m parts. To take an example, 
if one had a poem of sixteen four-line verses to 
learn, the correct way to learn it would not be to 
learn it one verse at a time, a procedure cftfnmonly 
followed by an untrained individual, but to read 
from beginning to end again and again until the 
whole could be repeated. There is only one drawback 
to this method, namely, that a person is likely to be- 
come discouraged or lose interest when progress is 
apparently lacking, if he does not have sufficient 
confidence in the method. It sometimes happens that 
in first using this method of learning, rather poor 
results are obtained, but if given a fair trial, the 
time saved and the greater permanence of the re- 
sult will show the real efficiency of the method. 

The reason for the greater economy of the " whole 
method " lies in one of the most fundamental laws of 
learning, namely, that one should always begin by 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 67 

doing a thing as nearly as possible in the way it is 
eventually to be done. Otherwise, it must not only 
be relearned in parts, but old habits must be broken. 
In learning anything in sections, associations are 
formed between the end of a section and its begin- 
ning, but since repetition as a whole is the desired 
end, all of such associations must be finally broken 
and correct ones formed. Learning the task as a 
whole in the first place forms only habits which will 
be needed in the perfected performance. 

3. — A third fact in economical learning has to do 
with the distribution of time and effort. If the ex- 
act influence of fatigue, practice, and a number of 
other factors involved in learning were known, one 
could arrange beforehand the time schedule that 
would ^e most economical for learning. But since 
we do not have such knowledge in sufficient detail, 
the problem has to be attacked empirically. Various 
tasks are Set and a given amount of time allowed 
for learning. This time is differently distributed 
for different individuals, some spending theirs in one 
continuous work period, and others spreading their 
time over a period by dividing it into portions. The 
conclusion which has been drawn from experiments 
of this type is that too great concentration or dis- 
tribution of time is not economical. The learning 
periods should be short enough to avoid the onset 
of fatigue, and long enough not to cause the loss 
of too much time in getting warmed up to the task 
at the beginning of each learning period. No abso- 



68 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

lute rule can be laid down for all individuals, but it 
can be safely said that a moderate distribution of 
time always gives more economical results than 
spending the same amount in one continuous study 
period. The same facts are true of motor learning 
or muscular activity. The reason in the latter case 
seems more obvious than in memorizing, but it is 
no doubt the same in both cases. Activity causes 
an increase in the nutrition of the part used, and 
these nutritive changes, whether they occur in the 
nerve or in the muscle mechanism, would be most 
furthered by a distribution of the working time. 

4. — The permanence of the effects of learning has 
been measured for various sorts of material and for 
fairly long periods of time. Naturally, the duration 
of the effect of learning depends much on the char- 
acter of the material, e. g., whether or not it is logi- 
cal in character, and whether or not it is related to 
one's permanent interests. But allowing for all of 
these possible variations, the effects of learning fade 
out in relatively the same manner, whatever the na- 
ture of the material learned. Thus, it has been 
definitely established that forgetting goes on very 
rapidly for a short time after learning and then 
more slowly until the passage of months or even 
years does not seem to reduce the quantity retained. 
A necessary corollary to these facts about forget- 
ting is that of the value of repetition in learning, or 
reciting from time to time what has been learned. 
The most economical time to do this repeating is 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 69 

during the period shortly after the learning, because 
this is the critical period in which a large propor- 
tion of the material, if not refreshed, will be lost. 
The laboratory experiment which indicates the slow- 
est rate of forgetting, shows that, of a poem learned 
well enough to be repeated correctly twice imme- 
diately after learning, over 20% will be lost in 24 
hours ; while at the end of 30 days only 76% will be 
lost. These figures mean that in a period thirty 
times as long, less than four times as much of the 
material is lost. The results of other experiments 
with different kinds of material show a much greater 
difference in the rate of forgetting during the dif- 
ferent time intervals. 

5. — One of the most important conclusions drawn 
from experimental work on learning is the neces- 
sity for the intention or the "will to learn,' ' in or- 
der that things shall be remembered. The case is 
analogous to the active as compared with the pas- 
sive attitude in habit formation mentioned earlier in 
the chapter. Anyone can find abundant evidence 
from his own experience that only the things which 
he wills to learn are likely to be remembered. For 
instance, the writer has in the course of certain ex- 
perimental work named a series of 100 colors (five 
different colors, each repeated twenty times, ar- 
ranged in a random order), over 1,000 times in order 
to measure his speed of reading, and he never 
learned the list so far as to be able to recall even 
the first three colors. Here the intention was to gain 



70 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

speed in reading and not to remember. One's igno- 
rance of situations which he meets daily during years 
of his life testifies to the importance of this intention 
to learn. The inability to describe correctly the face 
of the watch which has been carried for years and 
looked at many times each day is one striking ex- 
ample. 

6. — Just as there is a physiological limit to our 
speed of action or our endurance, so there is a limit 
to our learning power, set by the original character 
of our nervous mechanism. What one's training 
does is to enable him to make the best use of his 
native memory, by teaching him the value of various 
aids to memory such as we have been discussing in 
these pages. Original differences in retentiveness 
may account for the great individual differences in 
the memories of adults. 

The Function of Imagery in Learning. — There is 
no one question concerning consciousness in which 
people seem to differ more than in the importance 
they attach to images or mental pictures in learn- 
ing and thinking. Some persons have very vivid 
imagery and find it present in consciousness so con- 
sistently that they make memory and the presence 
of images of past experience practically synony- 
mous. To such persons, one way to improve mem- 
ory and learning power is to cultivate a rich and 
detailed mental imagery. To others, such imagery 
is almost unknown and consequently seems value- 
less for mental operations. To Francis Galton and 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 71 

many others since his time, people seem divisible 
into types according to the character and richness 
of their imagery. The most significant fact in the 
work of Galton is the relative paucity of images 
found in scientific and abstract thinkers, and its 
great prominence in children. 

A question of particular importance to the ap- 
plied psychologist concerns the value of imagery for 
special kinds of work. For instance, does the in- 
ventor need vivid visual imagery so that he may 
see in his mind's eye the thing that he shall con- 
struct ; do the painter and the sculptor need vivid 
and detailed imagery from which to copy their cre- 
ations ; does the musician need to have auditory im- 
agery to create and reproduce music; is any work- 
man benefited by his ability to get good mental pic- 
tures of his task and his attitude toward it? It is 
difficult to draw a perfectly definite conclusion as to 
the practical function of imagery. But careful in- 
vestigations indicate that persons lacking these im- 
ages altogether, or possessing them in such vague 
form as to make them seem useless, have been emi- 
nent in the activities mentioned above. Further- 
more, individuals who can demonstrate that they 
rely on these images in learning are rare. So far 
as the present state of our knowledge permits us 
to judge of the matter, it would seem to be a waste 
of time to cultivate imagery as an aid to learning 
or as a source of mental efficiency. And it would be 
absurd to select individuals for special types of work 



72 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

upon the basis of their imagery, either as to its 
character or its vividness. 

Transfer Effects of Training.— In studying effi- 
ciency in mental life one frequently encounters this 
question: Is there a general ability or intelligence 
which is trained and developed in the course of ex- 
perience, or is training specific in its effects, 
modifying only the function exercised? Our educa- 
tional systems have been built upon the assumption 
that there is a general intelligence which is subject 
to improvement, and that such studies as algebra, 
Latin and Greek are especially valuable for this 
general training. Exact measures of the effects of 
training in simple mental and motor activities, sup- 
ported by the modern conception of the function of 
the nervous system, tend to support the view that 
training is specific, affecting only the function ex- 
ercised. The problem is a rather complex one, since 
a function like memory as we speak of it in a prac- 
tical sense may correspond to a large number of 
separate functions in the nervous system. The 
methods of studying this problem of transfer may 
be illustrated by the description of an experiment 
recently reported. From a series of 500 numbers, 
persons were practiced for ten days in canceling out 
every 3 and every 5 from a page of digits. They 
had been previously tested for their speed in cancel- 
ing from a series of number-groups, every group 
containing combinations of 3 and 5, and combina- 
tions of 4 and 7. After the ten days' practice in 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 73 

canceling 3 and 5 separately, the group cancellation 
tests were repeated. It was found that in the can- 
celing of the groups containing 3 and 5, there was 
a gain equal to more than 50% of the gain in the 
task actually practiced, that is, the transfer effect 
was 50%. But in canceling groups containing 4 
and 7, there was no gain whatever to be attributed 
to practice. In the one case we find identical ele- 
ments, the numbers 3 and 5, responsible for the 
transferred improvement, and in the case of the 
numbers 4 and 7, there were no identical elements, 
and no improvement. This means that there was 
no improvement in the general ability to cancel num- 
bers, but only in the ability to cancel specific num- 
bers or groups of numbers. This particular experi- 
ment and its results are typical of those performed 
by numerous investigators. 

In response to the growing conception of the limi- 
tations of general training, one can see a natural re- 
action in the educational procedure, a reduction in 
the emphasis upon purely cultural studies, with an 
increase of emphasis upon vocational and practical 
aspects of training. 

The problem as it should be stated today, is not 
whether specific training spreads to all other func- 
tions, but to what extent, and whether the amount of 
spread is sufficient to warrant the time and energy 
spent in general training. No complete solution has 
been reached to cover all cases, but there is a con- 
clusion which may be safely drawn, namely, that one 



74 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

gets the best results from practicing the a$t he wants 
eventually to perform, and in the way thai he wants 
to perform it, and is benefited by other related acts 
only so far as there are common elements in the two 
acts. 

Influence of Practice Upon Variability.— There is 
an important question concerning the effects of uni- 
form training upon differences among individuals. 
Does uniform training make people more alike or 
more different than they would have been without 
it? The question as stated would be answered dif- 
ferently by persons who attach much or little im- 
portance to heredity as compared with environment. 
To the former, training or practice would only give 
opportunity for original qualities to show them- 
selves, and hence would result in increased differ- 
ences; while to the latter, similar training would 
produce greater uniformity. The matter has been 
attacked experimentally, in the case of very simple 
mental operations, such as calculations and speed 
of perception, but the results are difficult to inter- 
pret. Differences at the beginning of training may 
be due to differences in the extent to which the par- 
ticular function has been previously trained, or to 
actual differences in original capacity to learn. The 
effects of practice would be different in the two 
cases. If the differences at the beginning of prao- 
tice are due to inherited capacity, then practice 
would increase these differences; but if the differ- 
ences before practice are due to differences in train- 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 75 

ing, the individual with little previous training would 
be given the opportunity to acquire it, and the in- 
dividuals would become more similar. It is practi- 
cally never possible to evaluate the factor of previ- 
ous training in experimental tests, since no one ever 
begins training in any function at the zero point of 
efficiency, nor can it be assumed that two or more 
people begin the training with the same preliminary 
preparation. About all that the practice tests show 
thus far is that the relative position of the individ- 
uals of a group at the beginning of practice does not 
necessarily indicate what their relative order will 
be at the end of practice. The one who begins best, 
may, at the end of practice, be the best, or may drop 
to an inferior position and be supplanted by one who 
began with an inferior grade of performance. This 
is especially the case where practice continues until 
ultimate ability is approximated. The variation in 
position is due to the interaction of previous train- 
ing and original capacity, and perhaps also to such 
factors as change in the attitude of the individual 
toward the work, or loss of interest. Expressed in 
terms of coefficients of correlation, reported by 
Thorndike, the relation between relative position at 
the beginning and end of practice is for a group of 
28 persons tested in mental multiplication .48 ; and 
by Hollingworth the same relation in the case of a 
number of simple mental tests on a group of 13 in- 
dividuals is .42. This latter figure is the average 
of separate correlations, and the author emphasizes 



76 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

the fact that the different tests included in the group 
do not all show the same relation. The relation be- 
tween beginning and end of practice represented by 
a correlation of .40 to .50 indicates changes in po- 
sition about half as great as would occur by pure 
chance. 

The practical conclusion to be drawn from this 
type of experimental work is that one should be 
cautious in judging ultimate capacity of an indi- 
vidual from any sort of preliminary test. The con- 
clusion agrees with one quoted from Thorndike 
earlier, that the college marks of one's older brother 
in his senior year are a more reliable index of what 
the individual himself will do in "his senior year, 
than are his own college entrance examinations. 

A further question may well be asked, concerning 
the influence of practice upon the variability of 
each individual's performance. It is well established 
that practice decreases the variability of an indi- 
vidual, makes his performance more uniform. In 
fact this may be considered a matter of common ob- 
servation. The variability is reduced by trimming 
off all superfluous and wrong movements, leaving 
fewer factors to vary. But even when this has been 
done, variations in performance are not completely 
eliminated; there will always be slight variations 
in speed and accuracy. The question then arises 
whether there is an actual reduction in the variation 
of the movements still retained as a part of the per- 
formance, or whether the reduction is only apparent 



EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 77 

and due to the elimination of the useless movements. 
In studying this matter, statistical errors are likely 
to creep in, since if variability is calculated on the 
basis of the time required, it is much reduced by 
practice, but if calculated on the basis of quantity 
done in a given time, the variability increases with 
practice. In concluding as to the change in the 
character of one's work as a result of practice, the 
figures must not be taken at their face value, but 
must always be interpreted in the light of the method 
of deriving them. 



CHAPTER V 

INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE ON EFFICIENCY 

Sex.— There is one more inherited characteristic 
which must be considered in a study of efficiency, 
namely, sex. It is inherited from our immediate an- 
cestry, although the factors which determine sex 
are not yet understood. To what extent does one's 
sex predetermine efficiency in practical life? Does 
being a male or a female imply the possession of 
certain original characters which make one or the 
other incapable of certain kinds of useful activity? 
This is an extremely difficult question to answer, on 
account of the characteristics which the sexes ac- 
quire from their early training, and on account of 
the fixed traditions which have been cultivated con- 
cerning the proper occupations for men and women. 
Custom has certainly been a very powerful factor 
in determining what shall be the sphere of the sexes. 
Just because the sexes are never subject to the same 
environmental conditions, there is scarcely any op- 
portunity to study their differences in original na- 
ture. 

The practical question of relative capacity of the 
sexes is being answered to a certain extent in the 
warring countries because the scarcity of men has 

78 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 79 

forced women into many of the positions formerly 
occupied exclusively by men. In two years ' time we 
have grown accustomed to hearing of women iron 
workers, women street car conductors and motor- 
men, women farmers and women chauffeurs. And 
they seem to be efficient in these tasks. What will 
be the effect of this work in the course of time upon 
women and their offspring remains to be seen. 

The question of sex differences can best be 
handled by considering, first, the physical and the 
physiological and then the mental characteristics of 
the sexes. Physically, women have a smaller aver- 
age size and weight of the body as a whole, and of 
parts such as the skull, and trunk. Men are uni- 
formly stronger than women and more so than the 
difference in bodily size and weight would warrant. 
The difference is to be attributed at least partly 
to intrinsically stronger muscles, rather than to dif- 
ferences in their development. The most striking 
difference in structure and functions, however, is in 
what are called the primary sex characters. Thus 
the anatomy and the physiological mechanisms of 
women are adapted to the bearing and the rearing 
of children, whether they ever have them or not. In 
connection with this primary sex function, all fe- 
males have been thought to be handicapped by their 
periodical functions, which incapacitate them both 
physically and mentally for a certain time each 
month, and on this account women have been con- 
sidered as excluded from many of the professions 



80 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

and occupations open to men. The same argument 
has many times been used against coeducation. A 
certain amount of physical disability may be 
granted. But recent and careful experimental study 
of mental and motor ability over long periods of 
time has failed to show any rhythmic variation in 
ability or performance, and has tended to refute the 
older views as inapplicable to normal healthy women. 
Some interesting statistics are available concerning 
the efficiency of women in industry. In a work pub- 
lished by the Eussell Sage Foundation in the inter- 
est of labor legislation, it is stated that women suf- 

■ 

f er especially from present day conditions in indus- 
trial work, such as overstrain from excessive speed 
and complexity, prolonged standing and the absence 
of a monthly day of rest. 

In addition to their susceptibility to injuries of the 
generative organs, working women have been found more 
liable than men to disease in general. There is a con- 
sensus of opinion among those who have longest observed 
girls and women at work, that the burdens of industrial 
life press more heavily upon them than upon men. 
"Wherever statistics of the morbidity of both working men 
and working women exist, the morbidity of women is 
found to be higher. . . . The two most important facts 
to be noted are women's higher morbidity when compared 
with men in the same occupations, and their longer dura- 
tion of illness, measured by the number of days lost from 
work. . . . Thus are women physiologically handicapped 
by a greater general liability to disease, and a peculiar sus- 
ceptibility to injuries of the generative organs. In a 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 81 

word, they are less resistant to fatigue than men, and 
their organisms suffer more gravely than men's from the 
strains and stresses of industrial life. 

Such facts as these may well be questioned when 
presented as evidence of natural sex differences, for 
in the case of working women there is often the 
burden of looking after the home in addition to the 
industrial labors, which is not borne by the men. In 
short, not only similarity of industrial conditions 
must be taken into account, but all other differences 
in the environment outside of working hours must 
likewise be considered. 

Are there any innate mental qualities peculiar to 
each of the sexes? Perhaps the most important dif- 
ferences to be looked for would be those of instinc- 
tive equipment. Can any differences in instinctive 
equipment be discovered? There are two instances 
mentioned by Thorndike, namely, differences in the 
pugnacity or fighting instinct and in the parental 
instinct. The former is said to be much more promi- 
nent in men and the latter in women. If such na- 
tive differences really exist they will account for 
much of the difference between the sexes, e. g., the 
great prominence of men in the field of competitive 
activities and of women in the moral qualities re- 
sulting from her natural tendency toward parental 
activities. It is no simple matter to decide upon 
the relative strength of these two instinctive tend- 
encies in men and women, because as general con- 
cepts the meaning of the terms is not definitely de- 



82 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

termined. And further, the environmental differ- 
ences may be such as to give prominence to the dif- 
ferent tendencies in the two sexes very early in life, 
although they may be originally equal in strength. 
There is little agreement among authorities concern- 
ing any other instincts in which the sexes might differ. 
Are there any natural differences between the 
sexes in general intelligence ? This question may be 
answered by studying the records of tests of mental 
characteristics little affected by training. Thorn- 
dike has collected the most important data concern- 
ing sex differences in mental ability. These are 
given in the accompanying table. The figures rep- 
resent, in the case of each trait, how many males are 
as good as or better than half of the females (or 
what per cent of the males reach or exceed the me- 
dian of the females). For instance, in the case of 
the tests for spelling the table shows that only 
thirty-three per cent of the men attain a degree of 
efficiency attained by fifty per cent of the women. In 
all cases the records are the result of laboratory 
tests, except where they are noted as derived from 

school marks. 

Per cent men reaching 

Name of Test median of women 

1. Color Naming and Card Sorting *.......... 24 

2. Cancellation Tests 33 

3. Spelling 33 

4. English (School marks) 35 

5. Foreign Languages (School marks) 40 

6. Immediate Memory 42 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 83 

Per cent men reaching 
Name of Test median of women 

7. Sensory Threshold 43 

8. Retentiveness 47 

9. Association (Speed and accuracy) 48 

10. General Information 50 

11. Mathematics (School marks) 50 

12. School Marks (Average of all studies) 50 

13. Discrimination (Other than color) 51 

14<— Range of Sensitivity 52 

15. History (School marks) 55 

16. Ingenuity ( Special tests) 63 

17. Accuracy of Movement (Of arm) 66 

18. Physics and Chemistry (School marks) 68 

19. Reaction Time 70 

20. Speed of Movement (Finger and arm) 71 

These records are collected from various sources 
and represent different degrees of reliability. The 
twenty traits may be roughly divided into three 
groups, namely, those traits in- which women excel 
(1 to 7) ; those traits in which the sexes are equal 
(8 to 14) ; and those traits in which men excel (15 
to 20). An examination of these three groups may 
give some grounds for certain differences generally 
attributed to the sexes. For instance, women ap- 
pear to be better in language work, and men in sci- 
ence work, women rank higher in sensitivity and 
men in activity. But the overlapping of the sexes 
in these traits is just as significant as the differ- 
ences. And, further, one cannot exclude the pos- 
sibility that these differences, such as they are, may 
have other than a hereditary basis. 



84 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Men and women may be said to differ in ways not 
measured by these mental tests, for instance, in emo- 
tionality, impulsiveness and sympathy. Although 
these characteristics cannot be measured in the same 
way as some of the simpler mental qualities, still 
they may be investigated in less direct ways. Some 
results have been reported which are based upon the 
judgments of the two sexes by friends, teachers, rel- 
atives and acquaintances. Such measures of char- 
acteristics based on this type of judgment conscien- 
tiously made are subject to inaccuracies, but still 
give a more reliable picture of sex differences than 
the casual impressions or prejudices that usually 
form the basis of opinion. Thorndike has worked 
over all available records of this sort and has pre- 
sented them so as to show the per cent of men reach- 
ing or exceeding fifty per cent of the women in each 
trait. For instance, in the case of patience, thirty- 
eight per cent of the men are found to have the de- 
gree of patience found in fifty per cent of the women. 
The traits studied and their values follow: 

Per cent men reaching 
Name of Trait median of women 

1. Interest in Persons Eather Than Things 15 

2. Emotionality 30 

3. Temperance 30 

4. Impulsiveness 34 

5. Eeligiousness 36 

6. Sympathy 38 

7. Patience . .38 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 85 

Per cent men reaching 
Name of Test median of women 

8. Vanity 40 

9. Shyness 42 

10. Temper 56 

11. Self-Consciousness 57 

12. Humor 61 

13. Independence 70 

In practically all of these characteristics, as in the 
groups of traits previously described, there is a 
great overlapping of the two sexes. It is quite likely 
also that some of the differences which are shown 
may be due to the different standards in the traits 
which custom decrees for men and women, that is, 
the differences may be due to environmental rather 
than to hereditary factors. 

There are still other possibilities of differences 
between the sexes. One of these is a difference of 
variability within the two groups, which, if found 
to be the case, would be a very vital difference. For 
instance, if men were found to be the more variable 
sex, in the sense that men covered a greater range 
of performance, then the best and the worst human 
beings would be men, and the fact that men have 
figured more prominently in the deeds of the world 
would be accounted for in the original constitution 
of the sexes. Likewise, if this were true, the highest 
achievement in the future could be expected from men. 

A rather common opinion among scientific men 
has been that men are more variable than women in 
this sense. The view was first contested by Karl 



86 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Pearson and since that time the earlier studies have 
been examined more critically and much evidence 
has accumulated which casts doubt on claims of dif- 
ferences in variability between the sexes. When un- 
favorable environmental conditions are allowed for, 
and sufficiently large numbers of individuals are 
tested, differences in variability do not appear. 
Three sorts of evidence have been presented by a 
recent writer in an attempt to dispose of the prob- 
lem of sex variability: 

1. — Physical measurements of newborn infants of 
both sexes. This is perhaps the only case where in- 
nate variability of the sexes can be compared, un- 
modified by environmental influences, since by the 
time that mental tests can be given the latter factor 
may have changed the innate tendencies. Holling- 
worth and Montague studied careful physical meas- 
urements of 2,000 newborn babies, 1,000 of each sex, 
and failed to find any significant differences in the 
range of variability in the two groups in the char- 
acters measured. Pearson studied physical charac- 
teristics of adults of both sexes and he too failed to 
find any differences in variability. 

2. — Mental tests of the two sexes. The most re- 
cent studies of large groups of people of the two 
sexes fail to show any differences in variability in 
the abilities tested. Among such studies may be 
mentioned that of Trabue on 13,000 school children 
in the completion of sentences, the arithmetic tests 
of Courtis on several thousand children, the Binet- 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 87 

Simon tests made by Terman on 1,000 children and 
Pyle's extensive measurements of school children. 

3. — Statistical studies of mental deficiency in the 
two sexes. Such studies made by institutions for^ 
the feeble-minded and defective show at first glance 
that there are more men than women admitted to 
these institutions. Since this is just what should be 
expected if men were more variable than women,— 
men being both better and worse than women, — such 
data have been used in support of the contention 
that men are more variable than women. But a 
closer study of the significance of the figures, to- 
gether with consideration of the forces that bring 
cases to institutions for the defective, shows that the 
two sexes are affected unequally by these forces. 
Defective women are much more likely to be main- 
tained outside of institutions than men, because they 
are essentially a dependent and non-competitive 
class, hence do not succumb in the economic struggle. 
As far as range of variability of the two sexes is 
concerned, the above arguments give no good 
grounds for assuming a difference. 

We may conclude our survey of the relation be- 
tween sex and efficiency with the following statement 
from Thorn dike: 

The most important characteristic of these differences 
is their small amount. The individual differences within 
one sex so enormously outweigh the differences between 
the sexes in these intellectual and semi-intellectual traits 
that for practical purposes the sex differences may be dis- 



88 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

regarded. So far as ability goes, there could hardly be a 
stupider way to get two groups, alike within each group 
but differing between the groups, than to take the two 
sexes. As is well known, the experiments of the past gen- 
eration in educating women have shown their equal com- 
petence in school work of elementary, secondary and col- 
legiate grade. The present generation's experience is 
showing the same fact for professional education and busi- 
ness service. The psychologist's measurements lead to the 
conclusion that this equality of achievement comes from an 
equality of natural gifts, not from an overstraining of the 
lesser talents of women. 



Age.— The influence of age upon physical and 
mental capacity is universally recognized, and yet 
the popular conception of age qualifications of all 
sorts is neither definite nor uniform. In practically 
no case is there good scientific foundation for the 
social, business and industrial age requirements. 
The economic factor may seem to be important in 
determining the age qualifications for work of vari- 
ous sorts. For instance, the labor of boys and girls 
is usually cheaper than that of adults, while the em- 
ployment of old persons is not advisable because 
they are likely to be inefficient, and their employ- 
ment may involve their care after they cease to be 
useful. A few examples of age qualifications follow : 

1. — Certain railroads will not employ men over the 
age of 35 years, and have a pension system whereby 
they are automatically retired from service at the 
age of 65-70 years. 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 89 

2. — In some states no person under the age of 
sixteen may drive an automobile, although the 
writers know of no case where there is an upper 
or old age limit for such work. 

3. — Entrance to college is frequently limited to 
persons over a given age, e. g., 15 years. 

4. — Applicants for police service must be over 18 
years of age (sometimes 21). 

5. — The vote is limited to adults 21 years of age 
or older. Under that age men are infants in the eyes 
of the law, requiring a guardian for the transaction 
of legal business. 

6. — Persons under the age of 14 (sometimes 16) 
cannot be employed in industrial work. 

7. — Children under five years of age may ride free 
on most public carriers, and children under the age 
of 12 years may ride for half of the adult fare. 

8. — The so-called age of consent varies from 12 to 
16 years in different states. 

For many of these and other age qualifications 
there appears to be no sound reason. Why should 
the legal age be 21 years rather than 18 or 25 years ; 
why should an intelligent fifteen-year-old boy be 
prohibited from driving an automobile, while a 
feeble man of 70 is not restrained? The whole con- 
ception of age requirements seems to be based upon 
the idea that chronological age is a real measure 
of physical and mental qualifications, or that there is 
a uniform change in individuals with age, so that 
number of years lived will serve as an index of fit- 



90 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ness. The reliability of this age index of capacity 
must be determined by investigation. 

The physical and physiological changes with age 
may be divided into two groups : First, those rela- 
tively rapid and pronounced changes, the date of 
whose occurrence is fairly uniform in all people, such 
as the appearance of the teeth, making possible a 
change from liquid to solid food, the maturing of 
the sexual mechanisms from 12 to 17 years of age, 
known as the adolescent period, and the menopause 
in women between the ages of 45 and 50 with its 
important physical and physiological changes. Sec- 
ond, there are the gradual and continuous changes 
in structure and function which occur from the mo- 
ment of birth to death. 

The body increases rapidly after birth in size and weight. 
It is the popular idea that the rate of growth increases 
up to maturity and then declines as old age advances. As 
a matter of fact, careful examination of the facts shows 
that the rate of growth decreases from birth to old age, al- 
though not uniformly. At the pubertal period and at 
other times its downward tendency may be arrested for a 
time. But, speaking generally, the maximum rate of 
growth is reached some time during the intra-uterine 
period, and after birth the curve falls steadily. Senescence 
has begun to appear at the time we are born. . . . The 
signs of old age may be detected in other ways than by 
observations upon the rate of growth. Changes take place 
in the composition of the tissues; these changes, at first 
scarcely noticeable, become gradually more obvious as old 
age advances. The bones become more brittle from an 
increase in their inorganic salts, the cartilages become more 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 91 

rigid and calcareous, the crystalline lens gradually loses 
its elasticity, the muscles lose their vigor, the hairs their 
pigment, the nuclei of the nerve cells become smaller, and 
so on. In every way there is increasing evidence, as the 
years grow, that the metabolism of the living matter of the 
body becomes less and less perfect; the power of the 
protoplasm itself becomes more and more limited, and we 
may suppose, would eventually fail, bringing about what 
might be called a natural death. As a matter of fact, 
death of the organism usually results from the failure of 
some one of its many complex mechanisms, while the ma- 
jority of the tissues are still able to maintain their ex- 
istence if supplied with proper conditions of nourishment. 1 

The special mechanisms which most commonly 
fail are the heart/blood vessels, the kidneys and the 
lungs. Now these changes are not so closely corre- 
lated with the number of years that one has lived 
that years may be taken as a sign of physical age ; 
the failures are more likely due to accident or to 
manner of living than to age. Examples of this lack 
of correlation between physical condition and age 
in years are abundant. Many a man of 70 years is 
physically younger than others of 45. Eealization 
of such disparity is leading to the development of 
new physical age standards. One's age may now 
be measured in such terms as blood pressure and 
kidney action, rather than in years, months and 
days. That "a man is as old as his arteries, " has 
become a popular expression. A recent campaign 
for the employment of old men as office help, clerks 

1 Howell, W. H., "Textbook of Physiology" (1908), p. 904. 



92 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

and messengers to offset the scarcity of labor, would 
be quite justifiable if coupled with the physical ex- 
amination of all candidates and the selection of those 
chronologically old but physically young. 

Careful measurements emphasize not only the 
great individual variations in physical and physio- 
logical development with age, but also the variation 
in the rate of development of different characters in 
the same individual. The accompanying curves in- 
dicate the different rates of change in a few physical 
characters, height, weight, length of skull, strength 
of grip, speed of movement (rate of tapping with 
finger), and sensitivity to pain. In order to make 
the data comparable, all age values for the different 
measurements are expressed in terms of the value 
at 18 years of age, which is taken to represent 100. 
Measurements of this sort have not been systemati- 
cally made beyond the age of 18 years. The figures 
along the base line show the chronological age, and 
those along the vertical show the per cents of the 18 
year values. Differences in the shape of the curves 
will indicate differences in rate of development. For 
instance, the length of the skull changes only slightly 
but very uniformly from 6 to 18 years. Strength 
of grip, on the contrary, undergoes considerable 
change, with an increase in rate at the age of 14 
years, the adolescent period. Between these ex- 
tremes various rates of change may be noticed. Each 
curve may be compared with the straight line which 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 



93 



represents the change in age upon the basis of 18 
years as 100. 

RATE OF DEVELOPMEtlT 

W TERF15 Of THE PER CEflT OF THE . t& YEflfZ 

RECORD REACHED BY EACH YEftR. 
Vo 
MO 



SO 

eo 

70 
€0 

so 

40 
30 
20 
10 




n id 



4GE-G 7 Q 9 10 II IZ 13 H 15 IG 

The following table gives the 18 year values for 
each of the traits as well as the units of measure 
for each. In the first column are the traits, in the 
second, the unit in terms of which the measurement 
was made, in the third, the record for 18-year-old 
boys and girls, the values representing the average 
of the records for the two sexes. 

Averages of Physical Traits at the Age of Eighteen 



Trait 
Height 
"Weight 



Unit of Measure 
Centimeter 
Kilogram 



Average Value 
165.0 
57.0 



§4 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 



Trait 


Unit of Measure 


Average Value 


Skull Length 


Millimeter 


189.0 


Strength of Grip 


Kilogram 


39.5 


Tapping Kate 


30 seconds 


195.0 


Pain Threshold 


Kilogram 


1.9 



The study of the individual differences in physi- 
cal and physiological characteristics for a given age 
shows that environment, and special habits of liv- 
ing are more vital than mere maturity in determin- 
ing bodily condition. Hence, the struggle to keep 
physically young with increasing years, if properly 
conducted, will within limits have its reward. 

Mental condition like physical condition under- 
goes rapid changes at certain periods. The mental 
is usually correlated with the physical so that the 
two periods of most profound mental change are 
adolescence in boys and girls and menopause in 
women. The adolescent period has been the object 
of much study, because the time of its occurrence 
makes of it an educational problem. Then there is 
the gradual mental development with age. The in- 
telligence tests of the psychological laboratory have 
disclosed interesting relations between age and men- 
tal development, both in the nature of differences 
among individuals and in variations in different 
functions within the same individual. It has been 
found, for instance, that instead of all of the mental 
functions developing at the same rate, there is great 
variation, even in such functions as rote memory 
and logical memory. The laboratory tests have been 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 



95 



limited largely to persons of school age, since for 
educational purposes mental growth during this pe- 
riod is of most interest. 

The accompanying chart will give some indication 
of the relative rate of change of a few mental func- 
tions. In order to make the data of the different 
mental traits comparable, they have been treated 
in the same manner as the physical traits described 

7ZATE OF DEVELOPMEriT 

FROrt 6 to 10 YE/ins (in ttrms pj the percent of 

the 16 Yt/IR, record reached by each year) 
<& •* 



90 
60 
70 
£0 
SO 
<40 
30 
20 

to 




f7GB£- 



earlier, that is, the records for age 18 have been 
taken as the standard and the other ages are repre- 
sented in terms of per cent of this 18 year record. 
Examination of the chart shows that logical memory 
reaches a maximum at 13 years of age with no 



96 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

change up to 18 years, while rote memory (measured 
by memory span) shows a more gradual increase 
with its maximum about 17 years. Certain of the 
traits, e. g., word building, indicate an increasing 
rate of improvement from 6 to 18 years, while 
others, e. g., association, show a decreasing rate of 
improvement. The straight line represents the age 
change in terms of 18 years as 100, or the standard. 
To determine the rate of change of a trait, its curve 
should be compared with this age curve. 

The figures for the different traits at the age of 
18 are given in the accompanying table, together 
with the unit of measure for each trait. Each fig- 
ure represents the average record for boys and girls. 
From these figures and by reference to the curves, 
the values for each age may be determined. 

Averages of Mental Traits at the Age op Eighteen 

Trait Unit of Measure Average Value 

Memory Span (Digits) Items - 8.6 

Logical Memory Items 37.5 

J* 
Substitution Items 29.5 

Cancellation One Minute 22.5 

Word Building Five Minutes 19.5 

Associations (Common) Per cent 90.0 

Form Boara Seconds 10.0 

Calculation One Minute 58.0 

There is even greater disparity between age in 
years and mental growth than between the former 
and physical growth. If one is physically in his 
prime at 25 years of age, he may reach his mental 



INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 97 

zenith at 60 years or older. A great deal of empha- 
sis has been given to the disparity between age in 
years and mental development by the mental tests of 
Binet-Simon and others, and the term "intelligence 
coefficient" has been coined to express the relation 
between them. From these tests one can assign to 
an individual a mental age in years by comparing his 
performance with the so-called age norms. Thus, 
if a 16-year-old boy makes a record in the tests such 
as the average 10-year-old boy makes, his mental 
age is 10. The intelligence coefficient is this mental 
age divided by the chronological age. A coefficient 
of 1.00 would then indicate a person mentally nor- 
mal, or one as much developed as the average per- 
son of his age, a coefficient of .75 would indicate one 
below the average and a coefficient of 1.25 would in- 
dicate a person above the average intelligence for 
his age. " It is by no means uncommon to find seven- 
year-olds who can do intellectual work at which one 
in twenty seventeen-year-olds would fail." And it 
is still less uncommon to find a twenty-five year old 
person with the mental age of a boy of twelve. Ob- 
viously then, for most practical purposes it is mental 
age rather than chronological age which is impor- 
tant. These age scales for the determination of 
mental ability have been devised for the detection of 
mental deficiency, and only of late have been modi- 
fied to cover ages above twelve years. It may in 
time be possible to measure the intelligence of any 
adult in terms of an intelligence scale. 



CHAPTER VI 

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 

I.— Ventilation: Temperature and Humidity. — 

The condition of the air in which one lives has 
been recognized as a factor in efficiency since the 
17th Century. The tragedy of the Black Hole of 
Calcutta, more than one hundred and fifty years 
ago, has frequently served as an example of the ef- 
fect of lack of ventilation. The following is taken 
from a recent article in Popular Science Monthly 
(1914), upon "Fresh Air." 

One of the hottest of the hot nights of British India, 
a little more than one hundred and fifty years ago, Siraj- 
Uddaula, a youthful merciless ruler of Bengal, caused to be 
confined within a small cell in Fort William, one hundred 
and forty-six Englishmen whom he had that day captured 
in a siege of the city of Calcutta. The room was large 
enough to house comfortably but two persons. Its heavy 
door was bolted; its walls were pierced by two windows 
barred with iron, through which little air could enter. 
The night slowly passed away, and with the advent of the 
morning death had come to all but a score of the luck- 
less company. A survivor has left an account of the 
horrible happenings within the dungeon, of terrible strug- 

98 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 99 

glings of a steaming mass of sentient human bodies for the 
insufficient air. "Within a few minutes after entrance every 
man was bathed in a wet perspiration and was searching 
for ways to escape from the stifling heat. Clothing was 
soon stripped off. Breathing became difficult. There were 
vain onslaughts on the windows; there were vain efforts 
to force the door. Thirst grew intolerable, and there were 
ravings for the water which the guards passed in between 
the bars, not from feelings of mercy but only to witness 
in ghoulish glee the added struggles for impossible relief. 
Ungovernable confusion and turmoil and riot soon reigned. 
Men became delirious. . . . All efforts for relief were vain 
until at last bodily and mental agony was followed by 
stupor. 

One need only appeal to his own experiences for 
proof that being confined in a crowded, poorly ven- 
tilated room produces drowsiness, lassitude, and 
even severe headache or fainting. To correct the 
evil, it is not enough to blame the bad air, — one must 
know just why the air is bad, — what makes it bad. 
Mere opinion and popular prejudice cannot be re- 
lied on to discover the cause, but the results of sci- 
entific experiments must be sought. Fortunately, 
in recent years a great deal of investigation has been 
going on to answer this question. The most recent 
and comprehensive experiment is that now being 
conducted by the New York State Commission on 
Ventilation, in their laboratories at the College of 
the City of New York. Our conclusions will be 
drawn largely from reports of this work. 

One of the earliest explanations of the effects of 



100 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

bad air, before chemical analysis of the atmospheric 
air had been made, was that the human body ex- 
hausted the aerial spirit of the air, a substance nec- 
essary for the preservation of life. Another view 
was that the human body gave off noxious vapors 
which poisoned those persons inhaling them. After 
the analysis of air into its chemical constituents the 
aerial spirit needed to preserve life became oxygen 
and the noxious gases became carbon dioxide. The 
effects of bad air were then thought to be due to the 
decrease of oxygen and the increase of carbon di- 
oxide components of the air. This is the view that 
is prevalent in the popular mind today. Experi- 
mental work, however, does not support this theory. 
Pure air contains among other constituents in small 
proportions, the following: 

oxygen 21 per cent 

nitrogen 78 " " 

carbon dioxide 0.03 " " 

Now in the most poorly ventilated schools and fac- 
tories the oxygen is reduced to only 19% and the 
carbon dioxide is increased to only 0.3%. But in 
order that any harmful physiological effects can be 
demonstrated, the oxygen must be reduced to 14 per 
cent and the carbon dioxide increased to 2.4 per 
cent. It is clear from such figures that the ill ef- 
fects from poorly ventilated rooms cannot then be 
attributed to reduction in oxygen nor to increase in 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 101 

carbon dioxide, nor even to a combination of both. 

The theory of " crowd poison," as it was called, 
next developed and received much support even as 
late as 1911. According to this theory organic mat- 
ter given off by the lungs and the body surface con- 
tained a poison, called anthropotoxin. The odor of 
foul air was supposed to be an index of the pres- 
ence of this poison. Definite proof of this theory 
seemed to be obtained by condensing expired air 
and administering the solids and liquids obtained 
to guinea pigs. Ill effects thus produced were at- 
tributed to the presence of the anthropotoxin. Later 
experiments showed that the technique of these tests 
was in error and that the conclusions were false. 

Moreover, experiment has shown that air is al- 
most never responsible for carrying disease germs 
of any kind. When transmission by way of dust 
particles, by insects, and by actual contact has been 
eliminated there is little transmission of disease 
germs. Lee, a prominent physiologist, speaks as 
follows concerning infection by way of the air : 

The mere fact that such germs (as tuberculosis, diph- 
theria, typhoid fever, dysentery, etc.) have at times been 
found (in the air) is of little significance in the matter of 
possible aerial infection. They never occur in any con- 
siderable numbers, and considerable numbers of germs are 
usually necessary to produce disease. It is known that 
many bacteria on being cast out into the air from an in- 
fected source lose their virulence in the process of drying, 
and soon die. Evidence that these disease germs pass 



102 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

through the air from room to room of a house or from a 
hospital to its immediate surroundings always breaks down 
when examined critically Q It is, indeed, not rare now to 
treat cases of different infectious diseases within the same 
hospital ward. The one place of possible danger is in 
the immediate vicinity of a person suffering from a disease 
affecting the air passages, the mouth, throat or lungs, such 
as a "cold" or tuberculosis. Such a person may give out 
the characteristic microbes for a distance of a few feet 
from his body, not in quiet expiration, for simple ex- 
pired air is sterile, but attached to droplets that may be 
expelled in coughing, sneezing or forcible speaking. But 
apart from this source, there appears to be little danger 
of contracting an infectious disease from germs that float 
to us through the medium of the air. 

Infection from sewer gas escaping from defective plumb- 
ing is a negligible quantity in the transmission of disease. 
Workmen in sewers are notoriously strong, vigorous, 
healthy men, with a low death rate among them. 

In the work of the ventilation commission thus 
far, the only result of the presence of organic sub- 
stances in the air has been a slight loss of appetite, 
not accompanied by unpleasant feelings or reduc- 
tion in work done. 

If bad air is not bad on account of its chemical 
constitution, low oxygen content, high carbon di- 
oxide content, or the presence of toxins, what is the 
cause of the indisputable ill effects of poor ventila- 
tion? Chemical theories have been replaced by 
physical theories, and the problem is transferred 
from chemistry to physics. The air is considered as 
a radiating medium by which the body may maintain 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 103 

a so-called normal temperature, set by nature at 
98.6° F. When the temperature rises above this 
normal the subject is said to have a fever, or when 
it sinks below this normal, he has a " chill." Either 
condition is destructive to the bodily well-being, the 
life of the individual cells depending on a mainte- 
nance of this norm. 

Fever is accompanied by abnormal chemical changes 
within the tissues and the production of toxic substances, 
which in turn react upon the tissues, diminishing their 
working power, inducing early fatigue, and upsetting the 
normal equilibrium of the organism. The result of such 
a disturbance of the bodily mechanism, if very pronounced, 
is the production of a pathological condition which is called 
heat stroke. 

The body is constantly producing more heat than 
is necessary for maintaining this normal tempera- 
ture, as a result of muscular, nervous and glandu- 
lar activity. The excess is given off partly by way 
of the warm expired air, but largely by radiation 
from the body surface and by evaporation of the 
perspiration thrown out upon the skin by the 
sweat glands. These two processes of radiation and 
evaporation depend not only upon the body and its 
condition, but also upon the condition of the air sur- 
rounding the body. If, for instance, the tempera- 
ture of the air is higher than that of the body, di- 
rect radiation from the body to the air would not 
occur, but rather the opposite. Further, if the air is 
already saturated with moisture, evaporation can- 



104 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

not occur. In this state the two most important 
factors in maintaining a normal body temperature 
are absent, and the body suffers from overheating. 
It is this overheating which causes the lassitude, 
drowsiness, headache, etc. Thus it may be said that 
the two most important conditions of the air in 
which one is required to live, which demand atten- 
tion, are temperature and humidity, and not chemi- 
cal constitution. 

Experimental results bear out these statements. 
If a number of individuals are kept in an air-tight 
room with the air unchanged for a number of hours, 
they show the usual symptoms of poor ventilation. 
If they are allowed to breathe fresh air by means of 
tubes leading from the outside of the room these 
symptoms do not disappear. And if an individual 
on the outside of the room is allowed to breathe 
the much used air from within the room, by means 
of tubes, he does not show the symptoms. Hence the 
air breathed is not the cause of the discomfort. The 
experiment room, used by the New York Ventila- 
tion Commission, is equipped with devices for chang- 
ing the air in any fashion, e. g., temperature, humid- 
ity, stagnancy, etc., and the effects of each change 
may be determined. Any change which will pro- 
duce the necessary radiation of heat from the body 
has been found to reduce the unpleasant symptoms. 
Thus stirring or disturbing the air with electric 
fans, thereby driving the hottest air away from the 
skin, will bring relief at once. 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 105 

Thus far we have spoken of the feelings of dis- 
comfort, etc., resulting from poor ventilation. What 
is the effect on efficiency as measured in quantity 
and quality of work done? . The efficiency tests of 
the Ventilation Commission are still in progress, but 
the available data show that if temperature and hu- 
midity are kept at optimum values, lack of ventila- 
tion does not decrease either mental or physical effi- 
ciency. If the temperature and humidity are raised, 
there is falling off in physical efficiency. For in- 
stance, the tests thus far made show that the effi- 
ciency at 68° is 37 per cent greater than that at 
86° F., and 15 per cent greater than at 75° F. As 
for mental work, represented by mental multiplica- 
tion, association, addition, typewriting and the like, 
there is no distinct falling off in efficiency, even 
when temperature and humidity are considerably 
raised. But in this case when the subjects were 
allowed to follow their own inclinations, the mental 
efficiency was perceptibly reduced ; that is, they were 
less inclined to work. This probably means that the 
tasks were more difficult and unpleasant and con- 
sequently required more effort when the tempera- 
ture and humidity were high. 

Humidity must always be considered in relation 
to the temperature. The optimum humidity in- 
creases as the temperature increases. For as air is 
heated it is capable of holding more moisture and 
as it is cooled it will give off some of its moisture — 
its saturation point is raised or lowered by change 



106 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

in temperature. It must be kept in mind that air 
which is too low in moisture content is not good, as 
it will take more moisture from the body than it can 
spare, and dry throat and nasal passages will result. 

The following practical conclusions may be drawn 
from the foregoing: 

1. — Homes and offices should be kept at a tempera- 
ture no higher than 70 °. The following additional 
figures are given by American ventilating engineers : 

Occupants at Rest Occupants Physically Active 

Lecture Halls 61-64 Gymnasium 60 

Sleeping Eooms 54-59 Work Shop 61-64 

Bath Rooms 68-72 (moderately active) 

"Work Shop 50-59 

(vigorously active) 

With a temperature of 68°, the humidity should 
be about 60°. The wet bulb thermometer gives a 
record of temperature and humidity combined, and 
a reading of 60 on such a thermometer is recom- 
mended. 

2. — Enclosed air should be kept in motion. This 
may be done by fans or by a current of air from 
an open window. Driving the overheated air from 
the surface of the body promotes evaporation and 
reduction of high body temperature. 

3. — Draughts are harmful only when limited to a 
small part of the body such as the back of the neck 
or the ankles. General changes of temperature are 
invigorating and resemble a cold bath in their effect. 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 107 

4. — Have plenty of fresh air night and day. "With 
otherwise poorly ventilated rooms this is the surest 
way of keeping the temperature and humidity what 
it should be. All enclosed air spaces when occu- 
pied by people rise in temperature and humidity 
from body heat and moisture, conditions which can 
be counteracted by a free circulation of air from 
the outside. 

II.— Climate and Season of the Year.— -Climates 
differ from one another, and seasons likewise, in 
four respects ; namely, temperature, humidity, baro- 
metric pressure and wind. The influence of climate 
and season of the year, consequently, reduce largely 
to a question of temperature and relative humidity, 
and to that extent are covered by the previous dis- 
cussion. But some consideration must be given to 
the statistical researches upon the influence of cli- 
mate and season, if only to corroborate the experi- 
mental results. Aside from differing in the method 
of obtaining the data, the two sorts of study, namely, 
that on ventilation and that on climatic conditions, 
differ in that the latter are concerned with the sup- 
posed results of subjection for long periods of time 
to certain atmospheric conditions, and the former 
with results for relatively short periods. The fol- 
lowing quotations are taken from the writings of E. 
G. Dexter who has done a great deal of statistical 
work upon the general problem of weather condi- 
tions and from that of E. Huntington, who has 
studied the effects of climate upon civilization. 



108 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

In their effects upon the race . . . varying temperatures 
have been recognized by every student of climatology. 
Inhabitants of hot climates are apt to be listless, unin- 
ventive, apathetic and improvident. An equable high 
temperature, especially if moist, weakens body and mind. 
No long-established lowland tropical people is a conquer- 
ing race in the broadest sense of the word. For the in- 
habitants of the higher altitudes, even under the tropical 
sun, this may not be true ; for as we ascend, the tempera- 
ture lessens about 1 degree every 270 feet on an average, 
and even at the equator we may have a temperate climate. 
The most favorable temperature for health that carries 
with it an aggressive energy which is felt, and which has 
led the world march of civilization, is about 55 to 70 
degrees Fahrenheit, on an average, and this is found in the 
temperate zones. . . . The dominant peoples are found be- 
tween the latitudes of 25 and 55 degrees. Farther north 
the available vital energy seems so largely expended in 
furnishing mere body heat and stimulus for the necessary 
physiological functions that there is little left for use in 
those activities which make leaders. . . . Excessive heat 
together with high humidity forms a most deadly combina- 
tion for one not acclimated to it, as the mortality on the 
west coast of Africa testifies; while in some localities, as 
for instance, Western Ireland, the lake region of England, 
and the extreme northwestern coast of our own country, 
much moisture from a great rainfall without excessive heat 
is not particularly unhealthful. 

One objection to giving such great importance to 
climatic conditions in determining the character of 
civilizations has been the changes in the type of 
civilization that have taken place in the course of 
centuries in the same locality. To offset this objec- 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 109 

tion, however, there is the suggestion, supported by 
modern researches, that climatic conditions have 
varied from century to century, and that "when the 
great countries of antiquity rose to eminence, they 
enjoyed a climatic stimulus comparable with that 
existing today where the leading nations now dwell. 
In other words, where civilization has risen to a 
high level the climate appears to have possessed the 
qualities which today are most stimulating." 

So far as the behavior of the individual is con- 
cerned, climatic conditions which are extreme in 
neither direction are conducive to the greatest activ- 
ity. That is, in extremely warm and humid climates 
and in extremely cold climates, the excess of energy 
supply over demand is always slight, and activity of 
all kinds is at a minimum. To put the matter an- 
other way, so as to relate it to our study of ventila- 
tion more closely, any atmospheric conditions which 
tend to change the body temperature much above or 
below its normal for more than a very short period 
of time decrease activity. 

It must be remembered that great activity and 
large reserves of energy on which the activity de- 
pends may be turned to good or bad use. Thus 
Dexter attributes the excess of crimes such as mur- 
der, assault, etc., in the temperature zone, over that 
in the torrid or frigid zone, to this excess of energy 
and consequent activity. He also finds a great ex- 
cess of such active crimes as assault in the summer 
months as compared with the winter months. On 



110 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

the other hand, he finds much more drunkenness 
in the winter season, a condition which he attributes 
to the low state of energy and the consequent need 
for stimulants. The excess of activity seems to find 
the readiest escape by way of the emotional states 
that lead to fighting. 

An interesting fact in connection with the rela- 
tion between the curves representing temperature 
and those representing frequency of assaults (the 
latter being taken as an indication of excess energy), 
is that they run parallel except in exceedingly hot 
weather, i. e., from 90° F. up there is a drop in the 
curve, which means a decrease in number of assaults. 
This confirms the earlier statement that high tem- 
peratures as well as low ones reduce the energy 
supply available for activity. Huntington considers 
England and the northwest coast of the United 
States as approaching the ideal climate. The former, 
in the neighborhood of London and Liverpool aver- 
ages 38° to 39° F., in winter and 60° to 63° in sum- 
mer; the latter (e. g., Seattle) averages 39° in Janu- 
ary and 64° in July. He attributes the climatic 
excellence of these localities to the fact that ocean 
winds from the west blow freely over them. Dexter 
measured the effect of season of the year upon in- 
tellectual work of a rather specific sort ; namely, the 
calculations of bank clerks. The records were in 
terms of certain types of errors made. He found 
most errors occurring in October, November and 
December, and fewest in April, May and September, 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 111 

with the number fairly large in the hot summer 
months. The last he considers due to the depletion 
of energy from excessive heat, the good records, or 
few errors, in the spring and autumn due to the 
stimulating character of the changes in temperature. 
The high error record in the winter months cannot 
be attributed to weather conditions solely, as the 
whole matter is complicated by increased business, 
holiday seasons, etc. 

III. Weather.— Weather may be reduced to the 
same four conditions as climate, namely, tempera- 
ture, humidity, barometric pressure and wind, the 
main difference being in the temporary character of 
weather conditions as compared with climatic con- 
ditions. On account of this variety greater oppor- 
tunity is offered for study of various conditions 
upon efficiency. Climate is always involved with 
such a large number of other conditions, among them 
racial heredity, that conclusions are uncertain. The 
influences of the weather may be studied upon the 
same individuals under environmental conditions 
identical except in regard to this one factor. 

The following quotations taken from an article 
on the "Psychic Effects of the Weather," give a 
notion of the common opinions about the effects of 
weather conditions: 



Nearly all vocations — some, of course, more than others 
— are affected by weather. Men of science are often as 
much subject to weather as seamen. Some writers must 



112 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

have the weather fit the mood, character or scene, and can 
do nothing if they are at variance. An adverse tempera- 
ture brings them to a dead halt. If one will but read 
poetry attentively, he will be surprised to find how much 
of it bears weather marks scattered all through it. A 
popular writer thinks weather often affects logic, and many * 
of men's most syllogistic conclusions are varied by heat 
and cold. Diverse weather states may be one cause of so , 
much diversity and even disagreement in thought processes, 
usually regarded as scientific. I have collected opinions 
of many experienced teachers and nearly all think there 
should be modification of both school work and discipline 
to correspond with weather. Animals respond to it 
promptly and with no restraint, and almost constitute a 
sort of weather signal service if observed. . . . 

An employer of 3,000 workmen is quoted as saying he 
"reckons that a disagreeable day yields about ten per cent 
less work than a delightful day," and we thus have to 
count this as a factor in our profit and loss account. Acci- 
dents are more numerous in factories on bad days. A rail- 
road man never proposes changes to his superior if the 
weather is not propitious. Some men say that opinions 
reached in the best weather states are safest to invest on. 

Huntington has studied more than 500 factory 
workers in Connecticut and 3,000 to 4,000 opera- 
tives from the Southern States. He has examined 
the records of 1,700 "West Point and Annapolis stu- 
dents and correlated their work on various days 
with the weather conditions on those days. His 
conclusions are as follows: 

1. — Changes in barometric pressure have little 
effect. 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 113 

2. — Humidity possesses a considerable degree of 
importance. 

3. — Temperature is the most important factor. 
The greatest physical activity occurs when the daily 
temperature averages 60° to 65° with a noon tem- 
perature of about 70°. Mental activity reaches a 
maximum when the outside temperature averages 
about 38°, that is, when there are frosts at night. 
Moderate temperature changes from day to day are 
most conducive to activity, while great uniformity 
or sudden great changes are detrimental to good 
work. 

The measurements by Dexter, mentioned above, 
on the effects of the season of the year upon certain 
specific mental activities, namely, the calculations 
such as bank clerks are called upon to make, and 
discriminations, or tests of speed of perception, are 
of interest in connection with our discussion of 
weather conditions. His results will be briefly 
quoted, although it must be clear that the conditions 
studied reduce primarily to those now under investi- 
gation by the ventilation commission. The latter 
work done under controlled conditions and with 
carefully planned technique should be given rela- 
tively great weight in drawing conclusions. 

1. — Increase in temperature causes an increase 
in errors, the increase becoming very rapid when 
the temperature reaches 85° to 90° F. At this point 
the excess reaches 60 per cent over the average. 

2. — Increase in barometric pressure increases the 



114 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

number of errors. Here the data are not so satis- 
factory and the conclusion rather indefinite. 

3. — High humidity especially when accompanied 
by high temperature causes increase in the number 
of clerical errors. 

4. — An increasing high wind causes a decrease in 
number of errors. Dexter 's explanation of this is 
as follows : 

It seems to me probable that it is an evidence of the 
necessity of ventilation on a large scale, such as is caused 
in our large cities through great movements of the wind. 
Such movements bring fresh air from the surrounding 
country to take the place of that which has been deoxy- 
genated through combustion of all sorts, and the effects 
which we have shown are just what might be expected, for 
that oxygen is necessary to mental alertness no one can 
doubt. ("Weather Influences," p. 238.) 

5. — The effects of the general character of the day 
are of interest. Cloudy days are accompanied by 
greater inaccuracy and rainy days show the same 
effect. Answers to a questionnaire led Dexter to 
conclude that the best mental work is done on fair 
days, while many bank officials are said to have ob- 
served an increase of errors in unpleasant weather. 

After this consideration of the data, it seems fair 
to reduce climatic, seasonal and weather conditions 
due to temperature, humidity, barometric pressure 
and wind, to the two conditions of temperature and 
humidity. Winds and barometric pressure in its 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 115 

causal relation to winds affect the body much as 
stirring the air of an enclosed room, by facilitating 
evaporation and heat radiation, with the consequent 
lowering of the body temperature. "Where there is 
a tendency toward high body temperature there is 
an abnormal burning up of energy-producing mate- 
rial, and where there is low body temperature, there 
is an automatic increase in physiological activity to 
raise the temperature, with the consequent consump- 
tion of energy. In either case the energy available 
for work is reduced, and this condition may account 
for all of the effects of poor ventilation previously 
described. 

IV. Influence of Daily Rhythm.— The question 
of change of efficiency during the course of a day 
may be discussed in this connection. Two questions 
need to be answered: First, is there a rhythm in 
the physiological mechanism, nervous or muscular, 
which, independently of work done, would affect the 
physical and mental efficiency of an individual? 
Second, in the course of continuous activity are there 
uniform changes in efficiency as a result of this work 
during the course of a day? The latter question 
will be touched upon in our later discussion of 
fatigue. 

1. — To answer the first question many of the bod- 
ily processes, such as temperature, pulse, breathing, 
etc., have been measured at various times during 
the day, and a certain rhythm has been observed. 
For instance, temperature, pulse and breathing rate 



116 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

are said to be lowest in early morning, 5 A. M., and 
increase gradually, reaching a maximum about 5 
P. M. The death rate at various periods of the 
day has been taken as an indication of changing 
vitality or efficiency of the bodily mechanism. It 
has been a rather common opinion that death, ex- 
cluding accidental death, of course, is most frequent 
at the early morning hour, 4 A. M., and conse- 
quently it has been assumed that vitality must be 
lowest at that time. As a matter of fact careful 
study of death statistics shows that the lowest death 
rate occurs in the early morning and the highest 
rate in the afternoon hours from 2 to 6, just when 
the physiological activities seem at their maximum. 
Other factors besides the bodily rhythm must there- 
fore be sought as the cause of the peculiar distri- 
bution of deaths during the day. 

Efficiency of the motor and mental processes at 
various periods of the day was studied by Marsh. 
In the case of physical strength, not including en- 
durance, the minimum efficiency occurs at the ex- 
tremes of the day, with a point of high efficiency 
about 11 A. M. and a point of maximum efficiency 
from 3 to 5 P. M. As to rate of movement there 
is a gradual increase in efficiency during the course 
of the day with the maximum toward night. In 
accuracy of movement the maximum efficiency occurs 
toward noon. Increased nervous state during the 
course of the day would account for the increase 
of speed and the decrease of accuracy of movement. 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 117 

An interesting difference appears whenever men- 
tal activity is involved. Wherever motor activity 
is combined with the mental work as in reaction 
time, form board tests, and the like, the course of 
efficiency follows that of the motor processes, with 
speed reaching a maximum late in the day, and 
accuracy in the late morning hours. In the more 
strictly mental activities, such as memory, transla- 
tion of foreign languages, attention, discrimination, 
mathematical calculation, school examinations, etc., 
the highest efficiency is attained in the morning 
hours for both speed and accuracy. 

A large number of adult students and authors 
were questioned concerning the time of their maxi- 
mum efficiency, and the majority considered it to 
be in the morning hours. Preference of working 
hours, however, may represent largely the influence 
of habit, rather than any actual difference in effi- 
ciency. Thus students attending classes constantly 
during the day may get the habit of working at night 
and feel less efficient at any other time. Individual 
choice of working hours may be further influenced 
by such factors as age, sex, fatigue, etc. 

Such differences of efficiency in the course of a 
day if established beyond question would be of con- 
siderable value for practical work. Perhaps the 
most direct application can be seen in school work, 
where mental work would be done best in the morn- 
ing hours and motor activities best in the afternoon 
hours. But many applications of the facts might 



118 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

be made to industrial activities also. A test of the 
output of magazine stitchers whose work is motor, 
with speed an important factor, showed that in the 
early morning hours the productivity was about 6 
per cent below the average for the day, and 10 to 
12 per cent below the maximum efficiency for the 
day, which occurs toward late afternoon. Thus if 
the working day of magazine stitchers were to be 
shortened, it should be shortened at the morning 
end of the day where efficiency is lowest. 

2. — Is this rhythm of efficiency discussed in the 
preceding paragraphs due to the nature of the 
physiological mechanism, or is it due to the relation 
between the hour of the day and the amount of work 
which has been done up to that time? In other 
words, is this daily efficiency curve after all only a 
work curve? 

This leads us to our second question, namely, con- 
cerning the course of efficiency during a day of 
continuous work. The tests made by Hollingworth 
upon ten individuals for a period of ten days, two 
days of which consisted of twelve hours, each of 
practically continuous work, offer the best material 
for answering this question. His general conclusion 
is that the efficiency at any period of the day depends 
not on any organic rhythms, but rather upon the 
amount of work or activity which has preceded that 
period. For when the work begins at 10 :30 A. M. 
the same sort of curve of efficiency for the day is 
obtained as when it begins at 7:30 A. M., except 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 119 

that it is shifted ahead just that much. One could 
not suppose that the rhythmic organic processes 
independent of work done or fatigue produced could 
thus shift. The contrast between the period of 
maximum efficiency for motor and mental activity 
appears in Hollingworth's, as in Marsh's, results. 
The data further show that subjects doing work 
essentially mental in character and working under 
uniform conditions, with a maximum of interest 
and incentive, show an average decrease, from the 
maximum efficiency, of 10 to 15 per cent in the 
course of a day's work. This result appears only 
after the possibility of improvement by practice 
has been eliminated. The experiment by Holling- 
worth is practically the only one of its kind covering 
a long period of time which eliminates the compli- 
cating factor of practice effect, and consequently, 
considerable value must be attached to these conclu- 
sions, in comparison with those experiments where 
practice was not eliminated. 

Although experimental work does not demonstrate 
a perfect relation between certain rhythmic bodily 
processes and mental and motor efficiency, it does 
show that mental work reaches its maximum in the 
morning hours and motor work, including speed and 
strength, exclusive of endurance, reaches its maxi- 
mum late in the day. The question of motor accu- 
racy, represented by the steadiness of the hand, in 
maintaining a given position is still uncertain as the 
two experiments quoted differ in their conclusions. 



CHAPTER Vn 

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS (Continued) 

Theke is another group of environmental factors 
quite as important for personal welfare and effi- 
ciency as those discussed in the preceding chapter. 
One of the most important of these conditions is 
illumination. The increase in manufacturing and 
industrial work requiring close visual control, the 
increase in the volume of reading matter and its 
accessibility to all people, and the improvement in 
the means of artificial lighting all contribute to 
increase the importance of illumination as a factor 
in efficiency. The improvements in artificial light- 
ing devices have not only tended to cause the sub- 
stitution of artificial light for daylight but have 
tended to increase the amount of night work where 
only artificial illumination is possible. 

A great variety of problems has been presented 
to the illumination expert. Some of them have been 
answered by careful experiments and some are still 
unanswered. For the psychological aspects of il- 
lumination, reference will be made largely to the 
work of Ferree, who has conducted many researches 

120 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 121 

designed to answer such, questions as the following: 
(1) How do daylight and artificial light compare 
in value for vision? (2) "What are the best daylight 
conditions for work? (3) What is the best kind of 
artificial lighting? (4) What is the proper location 
of lights with relation to the worker? (5) What are 
the effects of improper and insufficient illumination? 
(6) How shall the relative value of different kinds 
of light be measured? (7) Is the best light for the 
finest work also the best for less fine but long con- 
tinued work? (8) How bright should light be for 
the best results? (9) Does colored light have any 
practical value as compared with white light? 

The most effectual fighting methods are condi- 
tioned by certain characteristics of the visual mech- 
anism, which are innate and consequently common 
to all human beings. A description of these charac- 
teristics will clear the way for a discussion of illumi- 
nation problems. First among these conditions is 
the instinctive tendency to turn the eyes toward 
bright objects in the field of vision, so that the 
light shall cast an image upon the center of vision, 
which is the region of clearest vision upon the retina. 
This turning of the eyes is synonymous with visual 
attention ; it appears soon after birth and is one of 
the first signs of the infant's attention to its sur- 
roundings and its discrimination of objects. Not 
only does it appear early, but it is never completely 
overcome. The actual movements may be inhibited, 
not, however, by a failure of the muscles to contract, 



122 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

but as a result of the voluntary contraction of an- 
tagonistic muscles. Any attempt, then, to prevent 
this instinctive act of attention, if it succeeds at 
all, requires extra muscular effort voluntarily con- 
trolled, and consumes energy. 

The second important characteristic of the visual 
mechanism is the nature of the sensitivity of the 
retina to light. The main point to be noted in this 
connection is that the retina differs considerably in 
sensitivity in its different parts. It is commonly 
supposed that because one can see most distinctly 
when looking directly at any object, that the part of 
the retina thus concerned, the so-called center of 
vision, is also the most sensitive. This, however, is 
not the case, for the region around the central one 
is much more sensitive to light intensity. The dif- 
ference may be best described by saying that the 
peripheral parts of the retina are always adjusted 
for dim or weak lights, while the center of the 
retina is always adjusted for bright lights. So true 
is this that the center of vision with which one sees 
best in bright lights is practically blind in dim light, 
while the peripheral parts are used for vision in its 
place. This rather striking fact may escape our 
observation, yet a very simple experiment will at 
least give an indication of it. If one watches for 
the stars to appear as darkness descends in the 
evening, he is surprised to discover them first out 
of "the tail of his eye" — that is, he sees them first 
in indirect vision, or with the sensitive peripheral 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 123 

region of his retina. What are the consequences of 
this adjustment of the peripheral retina for very 
weak lights? Everyone knows the unpleasant ef- 
fects experienced upon coming from darkness into 
a very bright light, — a temporary blindness, or if 
not that, an uncomfortable glare which rather 
quickly disappears. Now the peripheral portions 
of the retina are always in this relatively sensitive 
state, comparable to that of the central portion of 
the retina after fifteen minutes in darkness. Bright 
lights falling upon the eyes from the side produce 
an uncomfortable glare. 

A third characteristic of the eye is the tendency 
of the accommodation mechanism always to adjust 
itself so as to see clearly or focus properly upon the 
object which is being looked at or attended to. So 
just as there is a tendency to turn the eyes towards 
a bright object in the visual field, so is there a 
tendency to focus upon it in order to see it clearly. 
This is either an instinctive reaction or it is acquired 
-extremely early in life, and is almost impossible to 
overcome, as anyone knows who has tried to learn 
to fixate a given near object while attempting to pay 
attention to another more distant object. There is 
thus a constant conflict between the tendency to 
accommodate for the object of involuntary attention 
and the object voluntarily looked at. 

A fourth characteristic is the contrast effect pro- 
duced when neighboring parts of the retina are 
stimulated with lights of different intensities or 



124 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

colors. For instance, when a dark and a light object 
are viewed side by side, the white looks whiter and 
the black looks blacker than if seen alone. In a 
word, the contrast effect is always in the direction 
of the greatest opposites, a white object producing 
black contrast, a red object producing a green con- 
trast, etc. This phenomenon is especially pro- 
nounced upon the peripheral parts of the retina, 
hence a bright object seen in an otherwise dark 
field has its brightness enhanced and as a result of 
this an uncomfortable glare is produced. 

From a consideration of these four characteristics 
of vision, we can derive one of the most funda- 
mental and yet one of the most often violated laws 
of illumination, namely, that the whole visual field 
should be as nearly uniformly lighted as possible. 
If a person is reading in a room with a ceiling light 
and unscreened side lights along the walls, each 
one of the latter forms a bright image or a glare 
spot upon the sensitive peripheral part of the retina. 
Contrast effect with the darker background tends 
to make this image appear even brighter than it is. 
This stimulation arouses the reflex tendency to turn 
the eyes toward the light source, and at the same 
time the tendency to change the accommodation of 
the eye from a near point to a far point. One of 
three effects will be produced: the reflex responses 
will occur, with the consequent distraction of the 
attention from the book ; or they will be inhibited as 
a result of the contraction of antagonistic muscles. 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 125 

at the expense of considerable strain and effort ; or 
there will be a continual fluctuation in direction of 
the eyes and their accommodation from the book 
to the distracting light. This muscular strain will 
produce pain in the eyes and head, nervousness and 
general fatigue, in addition to the discomfort due 
directly to the glare. 

It is largely the value of uniformity of illumina- 
tion which makes natural lighting, or daylight, more 
efficient than artificial lighting, because with the 
former an even distribution of light is more likely 
to be attained without intention. Yet here there 
may be a lack of uniform distribution. "Wrong 
location of the windows and skylights, incorrect 
shade of wall coverings and window shades and the 
presence of polished surfaces from which the light 
may be reflected may all serve to reduce the value 
of natural light. Most of these faults may be cor- 
rected by simple means, such as the use of ground 
glass in windows, removal of polished objects or 
giving them a dull finish, and painting the walls a 
soft yellow or gray. For instance, if the walls are 
very dark, as with blackboards in schoolrooms, then 
there is so much difference in the intensity of 
the direct light from the windows and the reflected 
light from the walls, that the uniformity of distri- 
bution of light is destroyed, and the evil glare effects 
of contrasting surfaces appear. The polished nickel 
trimmings of a typewriter or its glossy white keys 



126 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

are sufficient to add much to the strain and fatigue 
of a few hours' work 

It is with artificial lighting that the most flagrant 
disregard of this rule of even distribution occurs. 

In lighting from exposed sources it is not infrequent 
to find the brightest surface from 1,000,000 to 2,500,000 
times as brilliant as the darkest; and from 300,000 to 
600,000 times as brilliant as the reading-page. These ex- 
tremes of brightness in the field of vision are, our tests 
show, very damaging to the eye. 

It is naturally more difficult to get uniformity of 
illumination where the sources are necessarily so 
near, although many of the recent improvements in 
lighting tend toward the reduction in the magnitude 
of this defect. The so-called semi-indirect electric 
and gas lamps are better than the completely 
bare light sources, because part of the light is re- 
flected from the ceiling and the rest passes through 
translucent glass. In this way the brightness of 
the light source is reduced, although even here the 
translucent globe, if within the range of vision, will 
become a source of glare. The one remedy is to 
hang the light so high that it will not come within 
the range of vision. The indirect method of light- 
ing, in which all of the light comes to the eye only 
after reflection, the source usually being hidden from 
direct view by an opaque bowl, is at present the 
nearest approximation to the ideal lighting system. 
Although a greater light intensity at the source must 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 127 

be maintained than in the other two systems, namely, 
the direct and the semi-indirect, on account of loss 
through reflection, this is more than compensated 
for by the reduction in fatigue and discomfort. 

One of the most common and persistent causes 
of glare both with natural and artificial illumina- 
tion, is the use of highly glazed paper in books and 
magazines. Its effect, even where the light source 
is out of the direct field of vision, is thus described 
by one investigator: 

Obviously a child holding a mirror flat upon the 
printed page of a book can see the image of a light source 
which is well above his head out of the normal visual field. 
The result of glazed paper too often used in books is some- 
what analogous. Owing to the fact that the image of the 
light source is regularly reflected by the' black letters and 
the white background with practically equal facility, there 
is a decrease in contrast between the printed matter and 
the background, causing difficulty in reading and also a 
distracting and harmful effect of the "glare spot/' For 
these reasons glazed surfaces have been condemned by the 
light specialist. 

It is encouraging to note that more and more of 
our new books are being printed on unglazed and 
rough surface paper. Wherever half-tone cuts and 
colored illustrations are used glazed surfaces are 
now necessary for 1 satisfactory printing. Doubtless, 
a dull surface will be devised which will still take 
such illustrations. 

The intensity of the illumination has always been 



128 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

considered the really vital matter, and devices such, 
as reflectors and drop lights for increasing the in- 
tensity at the working surface are in common use. 
It is now known that it is far less important to have 
high intensity than evenness of illumination, on 
account of the very rapid adaptation of the eye to 
different light intensities. Under proper distribu- 
tion conditions, a rather wide range of variation in 
intensity is possible with no decrease in efficiency. 
The emphasis upon high intensity of illumination 
has been due, among other reasons, to the use of 
the visual acuity or keenness of vision as a test for 
light efficiency. This is a momentary test of how 
small an object can be perceived at a given distance, 
and in such a case the best results can be obtained 
with a strong light. A better and more practical 
measure of efficiency, certainly one approximating 
everyday conditions more closely, is that of the 
onset of fatigue and discomfort. For the former 
Ferree has devised a satisfactory measure and for 
the latter introspections must be relied upon. When 
these two indicators are used, it is found that for 
ordinary work a very strong light is not necessary. 
The fact that many persons believe the old type 
of oil lamp easier on the eyes than our present 
lighting systems is due largely to its low intensity, 
and the location of it out of the range of direct 
vision. Wherever high acuity of vision is demanded, 
as in drafting and similar fine work, high light in- 
tensity is necessary, but in all other cases much less 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 129 

light is required for comfort over a long period than 
is generally supposed. For instance, Ferree found 
that the light intensity recommended in 1912 by the 
Illuminating Engineering Society was about double 
that shown to be the most efficient by the fatigue 
test. 

While evenly distributed illumination such as is 
produced by daylight and by indirect artificial light 
properly installed gives the best results, it is worth 
while to consider how the system of direct lighting 
may be made least offensive. This will be especially 
valuable if it gives to the individual a means of 
protecting himself against lighting conditions over 
which he has no control. Three possibilities present 
themselves : First, to lower the intensity of the light 
at its source, thereby reducing somewhat the un- 
evenness of the general illumination. It is evident 
that this remedy can be applied only within limits, 
and that as long as there is enough light for distinct 
vision, the bare light source will have all of the dis- 
advantages previously mentioned. Second, by shad- 
ing the eyes from the direct effect of the light. This 
is commonly done and does decrease the discomfort 
somewhat. It has been found from tests that if 
eye shades are to be used, they should preferably 
be opaque rather than translucent and lined with 
white next to the face rather than with dark mate- 
rial. Unfortunately, most of the eye shades that 
are on the market are provided with a dark under 
surface. Eeference to the four characteristics of 



130 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

vision as described at the beginning of the chapter 
will show that the dark lining of an eye shade will 
decrease the evenness of illumination and produce 
glare by contrast between the dark surface of the 
shade and the light from the lamp. Moreover, the 
edge of the shade, being dark against the light, will 
serve as an object, tending to attract the attention 
away from the real source of interest, and at the 
same time tend to produce visual accommodation 
for this extremely near point, with eye fatigue as a 
result. The translucent eye shades are usually green 
and are good only as they approximate the opaque, 
but still having the disadvantage of being dark. 

The third possible correction for the defects of 
direct lighting consists in putting shades directly 
upon the light. This is generally preferable to the 
use of eye shades and is good to the extent that it 
hides the bright light source and approximates the 
effect produced by indirect lighting and daylight. 
It will always be, however, only a makeshift and 
less efficient than the indirect lighting systems. 

Concerning the value of different color qualities 
in illumination little is known. In most of the ex- 
periments which have been performed visual acuity 
was taken as the measure of efficiency, and these 
show the greatest acuity with white light. The 
few fatigue tests which have been made indicate 
that white light such as comes from the ordinary 
tungsten lamp is more efficient than any kind of 
colored light. The restful effects attributed to the 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 131 

carbon lamps and the oil lamps are doubtless due 
to their relatively low intensity, with its advantages 
wherever direct lighting is used. The question of 
color therapy, or the use of colored lights for the 
treatment of diseases, mental and physical, has at- 
tracted attention at various times. Quite a body 
of tradition has accumulated concerning the efficacy 
of certain colors, especially in the treatment of nerv- 
ous affections. Space will not permit a discussion 
of the curative powers which colors are supposed 
to have; moreover, no scientific data concerning 
them is available. The use of colored spectacles, 
such as amber, rose and smoked glass is mainly to 
reduce the intensity of the light, although special 
properties have at various times been attributed to 
certain colors. Here, too, experimental data is al- 
most entirely lacking, 

Distractions.— If the average person were to be 
asked whether or not distractions of any sort are 
advantageous, his reply would most likely be that 
they are not, for the term distraction implies an 
interference or disturbance. Evidence could be ad- 
duced of the disturbing effects upon efficient work 
of an aching corn, an itching nose, an ill-fitting 
collar, a broken finger nail, the hum of conversation 
or the rattle of a typewriter. Still, there is the 
opposite view popularly put into the saying that 
"a dog without fleas would die," and the testimony 
of persons who seem either entirely unaffected or 
even benefited by a limited amount of distraction. 



132 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY * 

At the present time when a search is being made 
for causes of inefficiency, and when business offices 
are filled with the clicking of typewriters, wheij in- 
dustrial plants are resounding with the noise of 
huge machines, and most of all when the terrific 
roar of the battlefields is driving men mad, the ques- 
tion of the real effect of distractions is worthy of 
careful study. "Whether the distractions be great 
or small, the problem remains the same — namely, 
are distractions harmful and if so, why? 

Little aid has been given thus far by experimental 
studies of distraction and its effects, although the 
tendency has been to minimize the influence of most 
kinds of distraction. This conclusion has been 
reached by comparative measurements of tlj.§ 
amount and quality of work done under conditions 
distracting and free from distraction. Now, it is 
a matter of common knowledge that when conditions 
are made more difficult an individual will usually 
rise to the occasion and overcome the difficulty. Ex- 
perimental evidence supports this belief. One prac- 
tically never exerts himself to the limit, either men- 
tally or physically, so that there is a reserve supply 
of energy which may be drawn upon to overcome 
difficulties. We have discussed in a previous chap- 
ter the value of incentives to action, whether it be 
memorizing a poem or acquiring an act of skill. 
Now it happens that disturbances in one's environ- 
ment may serve as a stimulus or incentive to greater 
effort in order to overcome them, and hence give 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 133 

the impression of increased efficiency. Experi- 
ments recently performed have shown that if told 
to do his best, one will do equally well an easy and 
a hard task, or the same task equally well in an 
environment free from or filled with disturbances. 
For instance, Morgan found that when a person was 
instructed to do his best in every case, an increase 
of 300 per cent in the difficulty of the task produced 
a decrease in output of only 16.3 per cent. 

It has been shown, also, that a reflex action, e. g., 
the knee jerk, which normally occurs when the knee 
is struck a light blow, will be more violent if a beam 
of light is allowed to fall upon the eye or a sound 
to strike the ear at just the proper moment. This 
^enforcement is called "dynamogenesis." It is 
found not only in reflexes but in voluntary reactions, 
such as that of lifting the finger when a beam of 
light strikes the eye. For example, if a loud sound 
occurs at the right moment the finger reaction to 
the light stimulus will be quickened. Strength, as 
measured upon the dynamometer is likewise sub- 
ject to increase through dynamogenesis. It is to 
be noted, however, that the facilitation occurs only 
when the additional stimulus is given at exactly the 
right moment, otherwise a retardation will result. 

The average person judges of the effects of dis- 
traction in terms of discomfort and feelings of 
fatigue, while the experimental measures have been 
in terms of the quantity or quality of the work done. 
What should be the ultimate measure of the effects 



134 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

of distraction? The fundamental question in all 
activity reduces to that of energy and its conserva- 
tion. From this point of view, a distracting noise 
that one can disregard by an added effort so as to 
keep up to the normal is still detrimental, because 
it is using additional energy and will lead to an 
early fatigue. One of the main evils of the direct 
lighting systems, as compared with the indirect, we 
have just said, consists in its tendency to cause 
distractions such as turning the eyes toward the 
light and accommodating for it; while inhibiting 
these movements means discomfort and fatigue. 

Measurement of distraction effects directly in 
terms of energy consumption is not possible except 
under the most elaborate experimental conditions, 
but it is possible to approach the problem in an- 
other way. If overcoming distractions means using 
additional energy, how is this energy used? The 
extra work must consist either in the activity of 
mechanisms antagonistic to those acting as a result 
of the distraction, thus inhibiting a response, or in 
the increased activity of other mechanisms. For 
example, in a recent investigation Morgan found 
that in the case of an activity somewhat like type- 
writing, noises of various kinds caused almost no 
change in speed or accuracy of the work, but he did 
find markedly greater intensity of the strokes upon 
the keys and articulation of the letters to be written. 

Both sorts of movement represent the expendi- 
ture of additional energy. These were the only 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 135 

movements recorded in the experiment, so that there 
is a possibility that much more of the body muscula- 
ture took part in resisting the noise distractions. 
This is not a mere assumption — resisting a distrac- 
tion may be said to consist in forced attention to 
the task in hand. And forced attention is known 
to be accompanied by increased reactions of the 
adjusting muscles of the sense organs, by a general 
reaction of the voluntary muscles, producing a more 
or less fixed posture of the body, and by increased 
activity of the involuntary muscles, indicated in 
respiratory and circulatory changes, all of which 
consume bodily energy. 

The practical rule would seem to be, from this 
survey of distraction, that where work of high qual- 
ity or in large quantity is to be done, the environ- 
ment should be as free as possible from distractions 
of all sorts. In certain industries where efficiency 
methods have been introduced, not only such simple 
distractions as lights and sounds, uncomfortable and 
ill-suited clothing have been eliminated, but more 
complex mental distractions such as fear of acci- 
dent have been removed by safety appliances, fear 
of sickness by introduction of methods of sanita- 
tion, fear of leaving dependents unprovided for by 
the introduction of insurance schemes. If the re- 
ports are to be accepted, efficiency is increased by 
this means. The rule will apply not only to highly 
organized industries, but the individual may find 
means of eliminating from his environment many 



136 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

apparently slight distractions, which in the course 
of weeks or months would make a considerable drain 
upon his energy. 

Monotony.— Very closely related to the question 
of distractions and their elimination is that of mo- 
notony and its possible effects. "Will the removal 
of all distractions from one's environment produce 
monotony, in the commonly accepted meaning of 
the term? The hypnotist is aided in his work by 
a monotonous environment, a darkened room, a 
rhythmically beating metronome, or a gentle strok- 
ing of the arm or forehead. A person prepares for 
sleep by darkening the room, closing the doors to 
shut out disturbing sounds, by removing restricting 
garments. Many times when students are placed 
in an environment as free as possible from distrac- 
tions, such as a dark, sound-proof room, they com- 
plain of inability to do as good work as when they 
are in more natural surroundings. Factory opera- 
tives prefer to work in groups and seem to accom- 
plish more in spite of the distractions which such 
an arrangement entails. Considerable objection has 
been raised against the modern efficiency methods 
of functionalization, in that they force workmen 
into a monotonous routine, a repetition, day after 
day, of a few simple and unvarying movements. 

On the other hand there is the recognized neces- 
sity for the elimination of distractions in reading 
rooms and libraries, indicated by prohibition of 
talking, by the presence of alcoves for individual 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 137 

readers, and by the use of sound deadening floor 
coverings. The reader can doubtless supply many 
other instances where simplicity of the environment 
is considered necessary for efficient work. 

Monotony from the psychological point of view 
is due to the state of mind rather than to the state 
of the environment. The same environment may 
be extremely monotonous for one person and quite 
stimulating for another. It is less a matter of pres- 
ence or absence of distractions, of uniformity in 
the environment, than of the presence or absence of 
incentive and interest. The mathematician does 
not find the observation of a point monotonous, be- 
cause it serves as the starting point for much think- 
ing; the geologist is interested in examining rocks, 
monotonously uniform according to ordinary ob- 
servers ; the factory inspector of ball bearings finds 
a sufficiently varied task in the search for lack of 
perfection in all its possible forms. 

Consequently, the practical problem is not so 
much that of attempting to avoid monotony as it 
is to create interest in what is apparently a simple, 
uniform task. The proper use of incentives, as 
discussed in an earlier chapter, will serve to arouse 
interest in most persons, where it would not natu- 
rally be present, and cause monotony to disappear. 
We find, then, in the phenomena of monotony no 
argument for allowing potential distractions of the 
attention, of whatever sort they may be, to be pres- 
ent in the environment of the efficient worker. 



CHAPTEK Vin 

WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 

We have had occasion to speak of the importance 
of fatigue in connection with earlier topics. Among 
other things we have found that fatiguability is 
given as one important difference between the sexes ; 
and that the quality of one's learning at any time de- 
pends upon the influence of fatigue ; that it is more 
economical to divide time available for learning into 
a number of periods in order to avoid fatigue, rather 
than spend it in continuous study. And we shall 
find one of the most vital questions in all practical 
work to be how to eliminate, avoid or recover from 
fatigue. The answer to these questions and many 
others requires that we shall understand the phe- 
nomena of fatigue, both physical and mental, and 
especially that we shall be able to detect the re^l 
symptoms of fatigue. 

Work and Fatigue.— Fatigue is usually defined 
as a decreased capacity for work, which may be 
determined by measurement of production; or it 
may be defined as a mass of sensations and feelings, 
producing a state of consciousness usually unpleas- 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 139 

ant, to be measured directly by introspection alone. 
These two meanings of fatigue must be kept dis- 
tinct, for they are not necessarily interchangeable. 
A person may have a very pronounced fatigue con- 
sciousness, may feel fatigued, and yet show no re- 
duction in capacity for work, no reduced output; 
while on the other hand, he may feel no fatigue at 
all, when greatly aroused, and yet be near the 'point 
of exhaustion. "Which, then, is the correct measure 
of fatigue — feelings, or the amount of work done 
per unit of time, or a combination of both feelings 
and work done? This question can be answered 
only after an examination of the facts of fatigue and 
its conditions. 

There are two possible sources of fatigue, each 
of which needs a brief description: 

First, fatigue may be the result of the consump- 
tion of energy-producing material as a result of 
activity, very much as the production of energy in 
the steam engine requires the burning of coal. A 
state of absolute fatigue would result from a total 
consumption of energy-producing material, after 
which work would be impossible until a new stock 
of material was provided. This kind of fatigue 
is demonstrated in the case of muscular activity. 
The energy-producing substance in the muscle is 
glycogen, a chemical substance manufactured in the 
liver and in the muscles, from material taken from 
the blood stream. Energy is set free when the 
oxygen of the blood unites with this glycogen in the 



140 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

muscle. In strenuous muscular activity the glycogen 
is used more rapidly than it can be supplied and 
consequently the supply is depleted. Fatigue from 
lack of fuel would occur rather rapidly if it were 
not for the fact that the liver serves as a reserve 
storehouse for glycogen and throws off into the 
blood stream a quantity sufficient to keep the mus- 
cles supplied in ordinary muscular work. But in 
cases of extreme and prolonged muscular activity 
even this reserve of glycogen may be exhausted and 
complete fatigue may result. 

Second, complete fatigue from exhaustion of 
glycogen, except under extreme conditions, does not 
occur because activity is stopped from another cause 
before that danger point is reached. The consump- 
tion of the energy-producing material leaves cer- 
tain by-products, among them being carbon dioxide 
and lactic acid, which act as poisons to the tissues 
and when permitted to accumulate in sufficient quan- 
tities may clog the muscle and retard or inhibit its 
action. Under ordinary circumstances these waste 
products are eliminated about as rapidly as they 
are produced, but under prolonged activity they 
accumulate faster than they can be removed. It is 
the presence of these poisons which in most cases is 
responsible for our fatigue states rather than the 
actual exhaustion of the combustible material, gly- 
cogen. It is significant that these poisons do not 
remain in the active muscle, but are poured into the 
blood stream. When carried by the blood in great 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 141 

quantities they may produce fatigue conditions in 
inactive portions of the musculature and in the body 
as a whole. The classical demonstration of this so- 
called transferred fatigue consists in transferring 
fatigue-poisoned blood into unfatigued animals, and 
fresh blood into fatigued ones, thereby producing 
symptoms of fatigue in the former and recovery 
from fatigue in the latter. 

Thus far we have spoken only of muscular fatigue 
and its causes. Is the nervous system susceptible 
to fatigue in the same way and to the same extent 
as is the muscular mechanism? Or can nervous 
fatigue be separated from muscular fatigue? 
Fatigue of the nervous system due to the depletion 
of energy-producing material has been questioned 
by some authorities, and by all others is considered 
slight in amount compared to that of muscle. His- 
tological examination of nerve tissues gives some 
evidence of such fatigue after prolonged work, espe- 
cially in the nerve cell bodies. Eecently some evi- 
dence has been adduced to indicate the presence of 
fatigue products also in the nerve fibers. It is rea- 
sonable to suppose that there would be a consump- 
tion of energy, even in nervous activity, although 
the amount may be small, and the rate of repair 
rather rapid. If this be true, there would be the 
possibility of nervous exhaustion as well as muscu- 
lar exhaustion in extreme cases. Such fatigue is 
considered by Crile to be the basis of surgical shock, 
resulting from the violent stimulation of parts of 



148 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

the central nervous system in an individual who is 
under an anesthetic. But nerve fatigue as the result 
of the transference of fatigue products from the 
muscles by way of the blood to the nerve tissues, is 
quite possible, and is generally recognized as the 
cause of the mental lassitude following upon severe 
and long continued muscular work. Since fatigue 
results from both of the above mentioned causes, 
namely, the reduction of energy-producing material 
and the accumulation of poisons, it is not possible 
to separate nerve fatigue from muscle fatigue, ex- 
cept under experimental conditions, for the one 
would involve the other. 

Granting the validity of muscle and nerve fatigue, 
one question still remains, namely: Is there such 
condition as mental fatigue? Needless to say, this 
problem is an involved one, since nervous activity 
always parallels mental activity and a certain 
amount of muscular activity almost always paral- 
lels it. For instance, " mental multiplication,' ' or 
the multiplication of numbers without the aid of 
visual or written aids, comes near to being purely 
mental work ; and yet the extreme state of attention 
necessary is accompanied by sense organ adjust- 
ment and tension of much of the bodily muscula- 
ture. Consequently, mental fatigue may be attrib- 
uted to loss of energy-producing material and to the 
accumulation of poisonous by-products of nerve and 
muscle activity. Since mental action is correlated 
with nerve action, and fatigue of this mechanism is 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 143 

slight compared with that of the muscular mechan- 
ism, with recuperation probably very rapid, the 
reality of mental fatigue has sometimes been ques- 
tioned. Under ordinary working conditions, such 
as those of the child in school or the student at his 
desk, it is not the onset of fatigue which affects 
efficiency so much as lack of interest and incentive. 
Proof of this lies in the fact that where fatigue is 
apparently present, an increased incentive will alone 
suffice to bring the output of work up to normal. 
But that fatigue in the sense of reduced capacity 
for work does follow intense and long continued 
mental activity, is indicated by a recent report of 
an experiment in mental multiplication. In this 
case the same procedure was followed as is com- 
monly used in such tests, and complete inability to 
work resulted after many hours. 

To ask whether mental fatigue, independent of 
nerve or muscle fatigue, is possible, appears to be 
a purely theoretical question, since so far as we 
are aware it is impossible to have mental activity 
independent of nerve and muscle activity. 

Since fatigue of whatever sort is a real physio- 
logical phenomenon, and extreme fatigue states are 
dangerous, it is important to know, first : What are 
reliable symptoms of genuine fatigue? and second: 
How may fatigue be best and most quickly over- 
come? The second question will be discussed under 
Rest and Sleep. What then are the symptoms of 
fatigue and how shall fatigue be measured? The 



144 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

most direct means of measuring fatigue would be to 
measure the metabolic changes of the mechanism in 
action in terms of energy-producing material con- 
sumed and by-products eliminated. Such a method, 
however, is impossible except under the most elabo- 
rate experimental conditions, so more indirect cri- 
teria must be sought in most cases. The following 
criteria of fatigue have been suggested: 

1. — Feeling tired, loss of interest, inability to fix 
the attention, headache and many other conscious 
states have been suggested as valid signs of fatigue. 
Certainly, they are the symptoms by which most 
persons regulate their activity, and they constitute 
fatigue according to the second of the definitions 
stated at the beginning of this chapter. These con- 
scious states are by no means infallible signs of 
decreased capacity for work. For instance, feelings 
of discomfort and distaste for work may be present 
and have a tendency to inhibit action when objective 
measures of actual production show the individual 
to be at maximum efficiency. One has only to recall 
the feelings akin to fatigue which he often experi- 
ences in beginning a hard task after a long period 
of rest. And then, too, these conscious symptoms 
may be absent, in states of great excitement or 
where unusual incentives act as a driving force, 
although the physiological changes may be ap- 
proaching their limit. For most persons feelings 
of fatigue would be very inefficient indicators of 
capacity to work. 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 145 

2. — A number of conditions resulting from de- 
creased sensitivity of the nervous system, have been 
suggested as indicators of fatigue, such as sense 
organ sensitivity, the change in the two-point 
threshold of the skin (the distance between two 
points touching the skin just great enough that two 
points may be felt), speed of reaction and muscular 
strength measured by the dynamometer. But ex- 
perimental tests show that there is no direct relation 
between these indicators and the actual efficiency 
measured by the capacity for work. The difficulty 
probably is that these tasks involve so many other 
conditions that the effects of fatigue can not show 
themselves consistently. For instance, the two- 
point threshold as a measure of fatigue is unsatis- 
factory because fluctuations of attention occurring 
during the course of a few minutes, are likely to 
cause as great changes in the threshold as a day's 
work in the school room. The degree of sensitivity 
of all of the sense organs depends so much upon 
fluctuations of attention that it seems poorly 
adapted for measurement of the more slowly devel- 
oping fatigue. 

3. — For practical purposes the proper measure 
would naturally seem to be the quality and quantity 
of work produced in a given unit of time. If a 
man is shoveling dirt and the amount shoveled per 
hour at the end of the day is only two-thirds of that 
shoveled in the early part of the day, he has fatigued 
about one-third of his capacity. But one's actual 






146 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

output is known to depend on many other factors, 
besides actual capacity to work, among them being 
incentive and interest. It has been found that a 
laborer paid by the day gradually decreases his 
output during the course of the day, while the same 
one paid by the piece or the task may even increase 
his output toward the close of the working hours. 

4. — What, then, shall be taken as a measure of 
fatigue if these criteria fail? It has been suggested 
that each individual must work out for himself and 
from his own experience, what his limits of safety 
are, and the rule has been offered that the safe 
limit for fatigue is that degree of it which can be 
recovered from in one normal night's sleep. Such 
criteria each one probably does work out for him- 
self, but the great shortcoming is that many persons 
who are never forced to do real intensive work do 
not discover their maximum efficiency, and conse- 
quently live on a much more inefficient plane than 
necessary. The rule would apply only where a 
person is trying to find his limit of normal fatigue. 

Measurement in terms of output or production, 
in which each person learns to interpret certain 
conscious signs as indicative of his safe limit, is, 
then, about the only rule that can be laid down, in 
our present inability to measure the physiological 
changes without difficult and elaborate procedure. 
In industrial work where certain uniform demands 
are made, the personal differences must be taken 
into account, e. g., that some persons tire quickly, 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 147 

others slowly, that some work at high pressure for 
a short time, others work more slowly and steadily, 
and a standard must be set which will approximate 
a fair maximum for the majority of people working 
at a given task. The establishment of fatigue stand- 
ards for various kinds of work is one of the most 
important problems which efficiency engineers are 
attempting to solve. 

Rest and Sleep.— How may fatigue be best and 
most quickly overcome? Theoretically our problem 
is to find the best means of eliminating fatigue 
poisons and supplying energy-producing material. 
Fatigue is sometimes described as unnecessary and 
necessary, the former being the result of useless 
and wrong movements in attaining an end, the lat- 
ter being the result of necessary movements. This 
discussion deals only with the latter sort of fatigue, 
since the elimination of wrong and useless move- 
ments was discussed in Chapter IV. The meta- 
bolic processes of waste and repair, or fatigue and 
recovery are continually occurring within the body, 
but our discussion will be limited to cumulative 
fatigue, that which is not compensated for from 
moment to moment. Numerous questions arise con- 
cerning recovery from fatigue, and the conditions 
of rest. A few of the most important of these 
follow : 

1. — Is change of occupation a rest, or must there 
be complete inactivity? 



148 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

2. — "What should be the relation between work 
periods and rest periods? 

3. — Does sleep provide complete rest and the only 
complete rest? 

4. — How much sleep is required and how shall 
one know his requirements? 

r 

5. — Does recuperation take place equally through- 
out the whole sleep period, or are some portions of 
it more valuable than others? 

6. — What is the source of the energy-producing 
material? What is the importance of such matters 
as food supply, character of the air breathed, etc., 
on the general bodily condition? 

1. — There are two answers possible to the ques- 
tion as to whether a change of occupation is a rest. 
If fatigue is due to the local exhaustion of energy- 
producing material or is due to the local accumula- 
tion of fatigue poisons, then fatigue itself can be 
considered a local condition, and a change of occu- 
pation requiring the use of other mechanisms than 
those affected by the previous activity, would con- 
stitute a rest. If, on the other hand, activity causes 
a general reduction in the supply of material by 
drawing from the blood stream the necessary con- 
stituents, and general poisoning by throwing into 
the blood stream the poisonous by-products of activ- 
ity, which are then circulated through the body, 
change from one occupation to another requiring 
equal activity would not constitute a rest. Prac- 
tically every case of activity of a limited sort pro- 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 149 

duces both a local and a less pronounced general 
transferred fatigue. The supply of material does 
not immediately follow the demand, hence other 
parts than those which have been acting may be 
relatively fresher. But the total amount of fatigue 
is not reduced by the shift of activity. 

When the second task is easier than the first, that 
is, requires the consumption of less energy, then it 
will give rest or relief when compared with the 
effects of a continuation of the original work. It 
would be better to say that there is in such a case 
a relative reduction in the amount of energy con- 
sumed. Usually the changes of occupation which 
we make when tired are toward the easier and 
more pleasurable tasks. One's own inclination 
seems to take care of that, so that the common 
impression is likely to be that changes of occupation 
are a distinct rest. 

2. — The close relation between the length of a 
work period and the required rest period is evident. 
The most economical work period must be deter- 
mined in relation to the onset of fatigue in every 
kind of work. This relation between work and 
fatigue has received considerable attention in con- 
nection with school work and hours of study and 
has lately been studied in connection with industrial 
efficiency and the regulation of the length of the 
working day. The questions, especially those con- 
cerning the optimum length of the working day, 
have already been discussed, but it may be said 



150 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

here that the tendency toward shorter working days 
is growing and that in the majority of cases there 
is an increase in total work done rather than a 
decrease such as might be expected. It is simply 
a demonstration of the fact that a certain balance 
between work and rest can be obtained which will 
give the maximum efficiency. This balance must be 
measured for each different task and kind of work- 
ing condition, but certain general principles may 
be pointed out which will hold for all conditions. 
Fatigue, in itself, need not be harmful, so that the 
first signs of fatigue do not indicate the end of the 
optimum working period. Theoretically, the work 
period should end where the reduction due to the 
onset of fatigue becomes enough greater than the 
improvement due to practice or adaptation, that 
further production costs too much in energy for the 
results obtained. It is a well known characteristic 
of the work curve (a graphic representation of work 
done), that it first rises, indicating that the efficiency 
increases gradually for a time; a level is then 
reached which may be maintained for a certain 
period; this is followed by a decline in the curve, 
which indicates that the efficiency is being reduced. 
The initial rise in the curve, is usually called the 
"warming up period,' ' and is familiar in most 
curves of mental and muscular work. Just as it is 
inefficient to continue work after the curve has de- 
scended beyond a certain point, so is it inefficient 
to stop work too soon, for in that case one does not 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 151 

get the full advantage of the initial warming up, 
and needs to get adapted anew each time the task 
is begun. 

The length of the rest period required depends 
upon the nature of the work and upon the length 
of the work period. The rests should be just long 
enough to permit recovery from fatigue without 
losing further time or momentum. Such a schedule 
has been prepared for the work of folding handker- 
chiefs. Each hour of the working day is divided 
into six minute periods, and for each five minutes 
of work there is one minute of rest. Although one- 
sixth of the day is spent in rest, the more intense 
work possible during the other five-sixths results in 
about three times as much work from each employee. 
Schedules for other sorts of work have been pre- 
pared with equal increase in efficiency. A five min- 
ute rest period for each hour of work is a good 
schedule for mental work. 

3. — Does sleep provide complete rest? If a 
change of occupation does not provide complete rest, 
when does one rest? Best must be looked upon as 
a state which we can only approximate, but never 
obtain, since our minds are active during all of our 
waking hours, and many of our muscles are active, 
even if in no other way than in supporting part of 
the body weight. Consequently, all rest might be 
conceived as a change of occupation in which the 
second activity approaches more or less a state of 
complete inactivity. Even during sleep there is not 



152 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

perfect rest, as the mind may be active in dreams 
and the body may move. But it must be granted 
that normal sleep approaches more nearly the ideal 
rest conditions than the waking state. 

Practically all of the physiological theories of 
sleep attribute its onset to either a diminution of 
energy-producing material or an accumulation of 
fatigue by-products. These conditions in one way 
or another, differing according to different theories, 
produce the state of unconsciousness called sleep. 
Although there is much doubt about just what sort 
of circulatory changes take place in the sleep state, 
evidence is not lacking to show an increased rate of 
repair. For instance, the most recent work upon 
brain circulation during sleep shows that, contrary 
to the prevailing belief, the amount of blood in the 
cerebral vessels increases during sleep. J. F. Shep- 
ard, who performed these experiments, says, "If 
any special utility is to be assigned to this fact (in- 
creased blood supply to the brain during sleep), it 
may be that the effective building up of energy-giv- 
ing substance in the brain requires greater circula- 
tion than is demanded by other parts. ' ' 

4. — How much sleep is required and how shall one 
know his requirements ? One hears occasionally of 
persons who need either no sleep at all or else very 
little. The majority of such persons substitute a 
waking state of complete relaxation or rest of both 
body and mind for ordinary sleep. If one can do 
this, there is no reason why sleep strictly speaking 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 153 

should not be dispensed with. It makes compara- 
tively little difference whether one undergoes the 
rebuilding process in sleep or in a state of relaxa- 
tion, the fundamental need is a state of relative inac- 
tivity. 

Besides individuals who substitute relaxed states 
for sleep, there are a few other remarkable persons 
who seem to require neither. Thus Thomas A. Edi- 
son is quoted as calling sleep an absurdity, a bad 
habit which ought to be overcome, and must be 
overcome by the human race. To support this view, 
an experiment by Mr. Edison and eight of his men 
is cited, in which the group worked from 145 to 150 
hours a week for five weeks. That is equivalent to 
more than twenty-one hours a day. It is said that 
every man gained weight during the five weeks and 
felt perfectly well. Mr. Edison believes that the 
average man who sleeps seven or eight hours a day 
suffers from lassitude, while if he slept only four or 
five hours he would feel clear as a bell, and al- 
ways wake up full of energy. There is always dan- 
ger, however, in setting up standards attained by a 
few unusual individuals to be followed by people as 
a whole. 

If sleep results from fatigue and constitutes a 
process of repair, then, obviously, the amount of 
sleep must depend on the amount of cumulative 
fatigue. This not only differs for various kinds of 
work, physical and mental, but differs widely with 
the individual. Some persons seem to preserve the 



154 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

balance between waste and repair more perfectly 
than others, hence have less cumulative fatigue and 
need less sleep. If the rate of waste and repair for 
a given type of activity can be equalized, the knowl- 
edge of the means would be of immense value. An 
approximation to this balance is obtained by the 
adoption of rest periods in the midst of work. There 
is no doubt that the proper regulation of work pe- 
riods and rest periods will do much toward the elimi- 
nation of cumulative fatigue. 

The exact amount of sleep required will always 
remain a problem to be solved for each individual 
case. It must be sufficient to keep him in a state of 
physical and mental efficiency, this to be determined 
by the amount and quality of work done over a long 
period of time. In no case should the tests be lim- 
ited to periods as short as a week or two weeks, for 
cumulative effects might be harmful and not show 
themselves in this time. 

5. — The question whether recuperation takes place 
uniformly throughout the whole period of sleep is 
one that can be answered only indirectly. Many 
measurements have been made of the depth of sleep 
and there is general agreement that the deepest sleep 
occurs during the first hour and then gradually de- 
creases during the remaining hours. But whether 
recuperation occurs more rapidly in the period of 
deepest sleep or not is uncertain. The belief that 
only the deepest sleep is beneficial has been current 
at different times, and many ingenious schemes have 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 155 

been used to prevent sleep after the deepest stage 
has passed. One of these consisted in sleeping upon 
a very narrow board, so that as soon as any move- 
ment, indicative of light sleep, occurred, the sleeper 
would fall off of the board and be wakened. Shep- 
ard, quoted above, says that sleep becomes lighter 
probably because of the elimination of a quantity of 
waste products. However, the slight benefit obtained 
from sleep broken into short periods has suggested 
that the real anabolic processes do not become very 
effective until after this period of deep sleep has 
passed. 

6. — The energy-producing material for muscle and 
nerve, as well as the material needed for structural 
growth, is supplied from food and air, — the glycogen 
from the food and the oxygen from the air. Con- 
sequently, the quantity and the quality of the food 
consumed and the air breathed are factors not to 
be neglected in the production of efficiency. The 
latter factor has been discussed in an earlier chapter 
in connection with the broader question of the influ- 
ence of climate and atmospheric conditions upon ef- 
ficiency. 

The efficiency value of foods for the upbuilding of 
the body has received much attention of late, espe- 
cially on account of economic pressure and the high 
cost of living. The evaluation of foods of all kinds 
as body builders has been taken up seriously by the 
Federal Department of Agriculture, and valuable 



156 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

bulletins concerning their findings may be had for 
the asking. 

Mr. Edison, who is said to require little sleep, also 
eats comparatively little food. He believes in a plain 
workingman's diet, and that the greatest economic 
gain for the world lies in the prevention of over- 
eating. 

On the average, men would get on better if they reduced 
their food consumption by two-thirds. They do the work 
of three horse-power engines and consume the fuel which 
should operate fifty horse-power engines. . . . Any man 
engaged at hard physical labor . . . could get on perfectly 
well with eight or ten ounces to a meal, although he might 
find achievement of the habit difficult. 

The above may be considered as an extreme view, 
but there is much truth in it. The ideas recently ex- 
pressed in an article in the Scientific Monthly by a 
member of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture may be taken as more conservative and more 
generally applicable. Much of what follows is taken 
from this source. People may be divided into three 
groups on the basis of their eating : First, there is 
the extreme in which palatability or pleasure in eat- 
ing alone regulates the diet in quality and quantity. 
This group represents the majority of people. Sec- 
ond, there is the opposite extreme in which all of the 
fads and fantastic statements about diet are heeded. 
And there have been many of these fads in recent 
years. One's common sense can usually be relied on 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 157 

to warn him that if such doctrines were true and im- 
portant, the race could hardly have survived its 
dietary indiscretions. Fortunately, between these 
extremes, there is a constantly increasing third 
group including those people who are learning % the 
fundamental principles of dietetics. Perhaps the 
most fundamental of all of these principles is that 
food "must supply a great variety of chemical sub- 
stances combined in different ways for the struc- 
tural needs of the body, and also must supply it with 
energy-yielding substances with which it may per- 
form external and internal work. It seems apparent 
that a varied diet, reasonably generous in amount, 
is more likely to meet the body needs than one re- 
stricted or unvarying in its make-up or scant in 
quantity. The more knowledge and judgment used 
in its selection, the better the diet is likely to be." 

The kind of food, the amount taken at a meal and 
the number of meals per day are largely a matter of 
custom. But fortunately the number of meals per 
day and the relative size of them does not greatly 
influence the total amount of food consumed per 
day, "for the man who goes without his breakfast 
is very likely to make up for it at dinner or sup- 
per, while the man who eats an early breakfast and 
then a second breakfast will be likely to take a mod- 
erate lunch or a light dinner." 

Space will not permit a discussion of the value of 
specific foods in terms of energy units, and their 
proper combination into menus suitable for different 



158 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

individuals. Obviously, the food requirements differ 
with difference in size, age and occupation. Tables 
of food requirements have been computed for "a 
man in the period of full vigor, weighing 150 pounds 
and engaged in moderate to active muscular work. ' ' 
Means of computing the needs for those varying 
from this standard have also been worked out. Such 
facts in convenient form are available elsewhere. 

Certain matters of broad application may be men- 
tioned. Foods may be grouped roughly into five 
classes : 

(1) Flesh foods, including milk, cheese, eggs and certain 
meat substitutes such as nuts, beans, peas, etc. (2) Starchy 
foods. (3) Fat foods. (4) Watery fruits and vegetables. 
(5) Sweets. And it may be taken as a general rule that 
each one of these classes of food should be represented, 
if not at every meal, at least once a day, and that if an 
excessive number of food materials from any one group 
are used in the course of a day the result is likely to be 
unsatisfactory from the standpoint of rational dietetics or 
of taste. 

Finally, meals constructed upon the above broad 
basis may be one of two types, the "restaurant" 
type or the "family" type. In the first, the prin- 
cipal dish is a meat order, supported by potatoes, 
a green vegetable, bread and butter and a dessert. 
In the second, the meat is relatively less important, 
with a much larger quantity and variety of vege- 
tables, bread, butter and a dessert. 



WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 159 

If we follow the rapidly gaining theory that foods like 
meat, which yield an acid residue when assimilated, should 
be accompanied by a generous amount of foods like vege- 
tables and fruits, which yield a distinctly alkaline residue 
when assimilated, the wisdom of the so-called household 
type of meal is apparent. We shall find also, if we con- 
sider its chemical composition and energy value, that it is 
more likely than the other type to supply in reasonable 
proportion the necessary building and repair material and 
the energy-yielding substances required. 

We may take it as a safe guide that our food 
should be of good quality, varied in character, with 
meats well balanced by vegetables and fruits, ample 
in quantity, the exact amount depending on the na- 
ture of the individual's activities. Whether these 
conditions are fulfilled may be measured by the state 
of the health, maintenance of a standard weight, and 
a standard efficiency measured in terms of produc- 
tivity. 

In any consideration of food values it is well to 
remember that the important fact is not how much 
food and what kind is consumed, but what propor- 
tion of it is actually transformed into tissue and 
fuel within the body. This assimilation of food 
for body needs depends most directly upon the 
proper functioning of the digestive mechanism. Re- 
cent studies, moreover, have shown that the state of 
mind has much to do with the proper digestion and 
assimilation of food. Everyone knows that great 
fear will cause the tongue to cleave to the roof of 



160 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

the mouth from inhibition of the flow of saliva, and 
that the mere sight of a lemon will cause a copious 
flow of saliva. Not only this, but the other diges- 
tive juices are affected in the same way. Experi- 
ments upon man and animals have further shown 
that the rhythmic movements of the stomach and in- 
testines which normally occur during digestion and 
are a necessary part of the process, may be com- 
pletely inhibited as a result of emotional disturb- 
ances. Whether food shall be made available for 
body needs depends, then, among other factors, upon 
whether we are cheerful or sad, fearful, angry or 
calm, tired or rested. It behooves us for purely 
economical reasons to make the most use of the men- 
tal control over digestion. Variety in the prepara- 
tion of foods, with the use of sauces and flavors, 
esthetic effects in its presentation through clean 
linen, pretty dishes, decorative devices and every 
other appeal to the appetite is in the end an econ- 
omy. Likewise, sociability, music, pleasant sur- 
roundings, freedom from fatigue and worry and 
other means of producing good cheer are aids to di- 
gestion not to be overlooked. 



CHAPTER IX 
Drugs and stimulants 

The real effects of drugs and stimulants upon hu- 
man activity must be determined from the most care- 
ful and scientific procedure as opposed to the un- 
checked opinion and prejudice which are responsible 
for the common popular impressions. There is no 
field of psychological investigation more difficult and 
involved than this one of the effects of drugs and 
stimulants. The difficulties of experimental proce- 
dure are largely due to the suggestibility of peo- 
ple who have a knowledge of the effects to be ex- 
pected. Much of the experimental work has failed 
to eliminate the possibility of suggestion and the 
results are questionable on that account. A fur- 
ther source of error in many tests has been the lack 
of control subjects, or persons who are treated in 
every way identical with the others, except that the 
drug or stimulant in question is not administered 
to them. Control groups serve as a check against 
interpreting as drug effects results which are due 
to other factors, affecting both groups alike. The 
first difficulty, that of suggestibility, can be avoided 
only by preventing persons from knowing what 

161 



162 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

drugs they are taking, and when they are taking 
them. The drugs must be disguised, usually by hav- 
ing them placed in a neutral substance of some kind, 
which may be given regularly, sometimes containing 
the drug and sometimes not. In some cases the ful- 
fillment of these conditions is extremely difficult and 
in others practically impossible. 

There is a further serious difficulty in this type 
of investigation, which, however, is not limited to 
drug experiments exclusively, namely, the measure- 
ment of the effect Shall it be measured in terms 
of work done, an objective measure, or shall it be 
measured in terms of feelings, a purely subjective 
measure. Both indicators seem partially inadequate 
in this work. The effects of a drug are likely to con- 
sist in an increased difficulty of a given task, a 
greater inertia which must be overcome. But it can 
be overcome by increased effort, hence the objec- 
tive measure may remain unchanged. In such a case 
it might appear that the feelings of effort would be 
a more accurate measure than the objective record, 
except for the known unreliability of the subjective 
criteria of efficiency. Consequently, a third measure 
has been suggested, a direct measure of the energy 
consumed in work under drug conditions as com- 
pared with normal conditions. The measurement of 
energy consumption is such an elaborate and tech- 
nical task that it is practically excluded from the 
majority of the experimental tests. Most of the ex- 
periments upon which our discussions are based 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 163 

have used objective records of one kind or another 
to determine drug effects, emphasis being placed 
where possible upon the selection of forms of be- 
havior for measurement which are partially inde- 
pendent of voluntary control. 

One further difficulty may be mentioned, viz., that 
the experiments devised for testing the effects of 
drugs and stimulants are quite short in duration 
compared with the long periods over which they may 
be used in actual practice. Consequently, conclusions 
from such experiments must be limited to condi- 
tions tested and not made to cover cases of long con- 
tinued use. This error is not peculiar to psychologi- 
cal tests alone. The same criticism, for instance, 
may be lodged against the tests of the physiological 
effects of benzoate of soda, which established it as 
harmless when taken in extremely small quantities. 
Has the possibility of cumulative effect from long 
continued use been sufficiently taken into account? 

Our discussion will cover the effect of only the 
more common drugs and stimulants, such as are 
real factors in the problem of personal efficiency. 
They will be considered in the following four 
groups: (1) Tobacco, especially when smoked. (2) 
Alcohol, in the various forms in which it is com- 
monly taken. (3) Caffeine, which is the drug ap- 
pearing in coffee, tea and some soda fountain drinks. 
(4) Such less common drugs as cocaine, strychnine, 
morphine, etc. 

Tobacco.— Statistical studies of the influence of 



164 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

tobacco smoidng, such as the number of inmates of 
penal institutions who use tobacco, and the influ- 
ence of tobacco on growth as determined by the rela- 
tive number of tall and short persons who used to- 
bacco during the growth period, are complex to say 
the least. In this regard they remind one of the 
figures representing the effects of weather condi- 
tions upon efficiency. The humorous remark that a 
' 6 drop of nicotine on the tongue of a cat will kill the 
strongest man, ' ' illustrates fairly well the character 
of the data usually brought to bear on the question. 

From the experimental point of view the investi- 
gation of tobacco and especially smoking, the most 
common form in which it is used, is subject to all 
of the difficulties mentioned above as peculiar to 
drug problems. Especially important and almost 
impossible to eliminate is the factor of suggestion. 
At least it never has been eliminated in any of the 
studies thus far made. And in all cases the experi- 
ments fall short of actual conditions in that they 
cover relatively brief periods of time. Most of the 
experiments report the effects following immedi- 
ately after smoking, the indulgence being limited 
usually to one cigar, cigarette or the like. 

Tobacco is commonly said to reduce efficiency by 
introducing a poison into the system, and this poison 
is generally believed to be nicotine. Consequently, 
nicotine has been given in experimental doses and 
the effects produced are interpreted as indicative 
of the effects of tobacco smoking. The proportion 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 165 

of nicotine carried in smoke ranges, according to 
different authorities, from seven to seventy per cent 
of that contained in the tobacco. As a matter of fact 
recent chemical analyses tend to show that it is ex- 
ceptional to find any nicotine at all in tobacco smoke. 
(It does occur in small quantities in the smoke of 
rapidly burning cigarettes.) The nicotine in the 
burning is decomposed into pyradine and other sub- 
stances. It may seem to make little difference 
whether the toxic factor be called nicotine or pyra- 
dine, except for the fact that pyradine is only about 
one-twentieth as poisonous as nicotine. The physio- 
logical effects of nicotine introduced into the body 
through smoking are said to be moderate constric- 
tion of blood vessels, rise in blood pressure during 
the smoking period with a rapid fall immediately 
afterward, primary slowing of the heart action fol- 
lowed by a secondary quickening and increase in 
the rate and amplitude of breathing. 

Numerous statistical studies of the effects of to- 
bacco smoking have been reported and the follow- 
ing cases may be taken as representative of them. 
Meylan examined the scholarship records of over 
two hundred Columbia University students, of whom 
115 were smokers and 108 were non-smokers. The 
academic records were as follows : 

Average Average Failures 

Entrance Marks 1st 2 yrs. 1st 2 yrs. 

115 smokers ... 89 62 10% 

108 non-smokers .... 91 69 4% 



166 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Taylor studied the average grades of 500 boys of 
a private school as compared with their tobacco 
habits and presents the following statistics : 

Age of students 12 13 14 15 16 17 

Per cent of smokers 15 20 38 29 57 71 

Grades of smokers 73 75 73 75 75 68 

Grades of non-smokers ....83 90 89 84 87 85 

Clark found that of smokers in Clark College, 18.3 
per cent won academic honors, while of non-smokers, 
68.5 per cent won academic honors. 

These statistical results are not unequivocal, for 
there are fundamental sources of error that cannot 
be eliminated. Can it be said that smoking is such 
a handicap to performance as the figures suggest, 
or that smoking is an indicator or symptom of in- 
tellectual inferiority? The reader may choose be- 
tween these two alternatives for the present, or ac- 
cept neither. 

Experimental studies of this problem are not lack- 
ing, although there are few that satisfy the funda- 
mental requirements of experimental technique. 
Most of the experiments concerning the influence 
of tobacco upon physical efficiency have been made 
with the ergograph, measuring the physical endur- 
ance of a limited number of muscles, in terms of 
amount of work done in a series of muscular con- 
tractions; or by the dynamometer, measuring the 
strength or force of single muscular contractions. 
M. Lombard found that a single cigar of moderate 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 167 

strength reduced muscular strength from 10.4 to 2.1 
kilogrammeters (a unit of measure, meaning the 
work done in lifting a weight of one kilogram to 
the height of one meter) or a decrease in efficiency 
of 80 per cent. This depression began to disappear 
soon after smoking ceased but complete recovery 
required more than one hour. The same investiga- 
tor found that muscular contractions produced by 
electrical stimulation instead of the individual's vo- 
lition, were not reduced, and consequently located 
the depressing effect somewhere in the central ner- 
vous system. Fere found cigarette smoking to 
induce a state of depression, after an interval of 
fifteen minutes, showing itself in reduced capacity 
for work. 

All investigators have not found such striking re- 
sults, among them being Eivers, Vaughan and Har- 
ley and Hough. Their reports show a change after 
smoking no greater than that which occurs normally 
at different periods of a day, while one of them 
seems to find a slower fatigue rate after smoking 
than occurs normally. Eivers' explanation of the 
slight decrease in efficiency found in his own tests 
is interesting. The circumstances surrounding the 
act of smoking are stimulating, that is, the sensory 
stimulation from the odor and the taste of tobacco 
are in themselves causes of increased efficiency. 
Consequently, the small decrease in efficiency from 
smoking is significant when compared with the ex- 
pected increase from the sensory stimulation. This 



168 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

serves as an illustration of the complicated character 
of the whole experimental problem, and the neces- 
sity for the most careful interpretation of data. The 
prohibition of smoking in all persons who are under- 
going training for speed, strength and endurance 
tests, is a practical application of the belief in the 
deleterious effects of tobacco on physical efficiency. 

The influence of tobacco on mental efficiency has 
been the subject of few important researches, and 
none has succeeded in eliminating all sources of 
error. It is in this type of work that suggestion 
plays its largest part and where the necessity for 
control subjects is greatest. This is especially true 
because the mental tests of efficiency are almost all 
subject to improvement from practice and often a 
great improvement may be noted from one repeti- 
tion of the test to another. In the absence of con- 
trols, improvement from practice might be wrongly 
attributed to the stimulating influence of tobacco, or 
might hide a real decrease in mental efficiency. 

Bush tested the mental effects of smoking upon 
17 students, 15 of whom were regular smokers and 2 
were non-smokers. One of the two non-smokers 
served as a control subject and the other smoked 
only cubeb cigarettes. Six well known mental tests 
were used, including speed of perception, free as- 
sociation, controlled association, memory, imagery, 
and calculation (addition and subtraction). The 
tests were first given, then the subjects were allowed 
to smoke quietly for fifteen minutes, after which 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 169 

the tests were repeated. The records for the group 
of tobacco smokers, non-smoker and the cubeb 
smoker are given in the following table. The figures 
represent the difference between the tests before and 
after smoking in terms of the per cent of efficiency in 
the tests before smoking. Minus signs always indi- 
cate a decrease in efficiency after smoking, and plus 
signs indicate an increase in efficiency. 

Mental Effects of Tobacco Smoking 

Tests Smoke Group Control 

Tobacco Non-Tobacco 
(15 subjects) (1 subject) (1 subject) 

Speed of Perception . . . — 17.1 — 6.8 + 3.4 

Free Association — 8.7 —20.5 + 0.2 

Controlled Association . . — 8.0 — 16.3 + 1-6 

(3 tests) —14.1 + 5.5 + 1.0 

—12.4 + 1.9 + 5.4 

Memory— Visual — 2.9 0.0 0.0 

Auditory — 4.3 +1.4 — 4.9 

Imagery —22.2 —14.3 +18.3 

Calculation — Addition . . — 9.4 + 9.4 + 1.2 

Subtraction — 6.7 — 0.8 + 1.0 

Average Ability —10.6 — 4.2 + 2.7 

The results of the experiment are summarized by 
the experimenter about as follows: 

1. — Smoking tobacco produces an average loss of 
mental efficiency of 10.6 per cent, while smoking ma- 
terial with no tobacco content whatever reduces effi- 
ciency 4.2 per cent. In the same tests the non- 



170 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

smoker gained 2.7 per cent in efficiency. The loss 
from smoking supposedly harmless substances like 
cubebs is interesting. 

2. — The greatest actual loss was in the field of 
imagery, namely 22 per cent. The test measured the 
speed with which images appeared when certain 
stimulus words were presented. 

3. — Taken together, imagery, perception and as- 
sociation represented the greatest loss. 

4. — Nicotine was present in all of the tobaccos 
used, but was not found in any of the smoke, except 
some of the cigarette smoke. Pyradine was found in 
all tobacco smoke and is the toxic factor. 

5. — The greatest loss of efficiency came from ciga- 
rette smoke. 

6. — Tobaccos differ in their influence upon mental 
efficiency, as follows: The least effect comes from 
cheap tobacco such as is retailed in 5 and 10 cent tins 
and bags; the greatest effect comes from cigarette 
tobacco; then follow Turkish tobacco and Havana 
tobacco. 

The figures are strikingly large in most of the 
tests, so that after one makes allowance for possible 
disturbing factors not eliminated from the experi- 
ment, and for the small number of subjects, there 
is still left an indication of loss of efficiency both 
physical and mental from the effects of tobacco 
smoking. There is certainly no sufficient evidence 
of an increase in efficiency. As a means of enjoy- 
ment and bodily comfort it has no claims over other 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 171 

forms of recreation, so that from the point of view 
of efficiency its use cannot be recommended. 

Alcohol.— No one question has been the subject 
of more controversy over a long period of years 
than that of the effects of alcohol in small doses 
upon the human body. The numerous experiments 
and statistical studies have produced conflicting re- 
sults, due in part at least to the inherent sources 
of error. Especially important is the factor of sug- 
gestion or expectation. Most persons have rather 
firmly fixed notions concerning the effects of alco- 
holic drinks, and investigators have often been in- 
fluenced by their preconceived opinions either as op- 
ponents or supporters of the use of alcoholics. 

No description of the early studies of alcohol will 
be given, because failure to standardize procedure 
and eliminate errors has resulted in a great variety 
of conflicting conclusions. Eivers was the first in- 
vestigator to disguise properly the alcohol in a mix- 
ture so that it could not be detected by the person 
taking it, and thus largely eliminated the influence 
of suggestion. He found practically no effect upon 
muscular work from taking alcohol in doses rang- 
ing in size from 5 to 10 cubic centimeters. Effects 
previously found by others from such small doses 
he attributes to the sensory stimulation and the ex- 
pectation of stimulating effects. Even doses as large 
as 40 cubic centimeters did not produce entirely con- 
sistent results in all cases. Sometimes there would 
be an increase and sometimes a decrease in total 



172 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

work done. "Wherever an effect was noted, how- 
ever, it consisted in a change in endurance or dura- 
tion of the work rather than in the quantity of work 
done per unit of time. (Measured by the total num- 
ber of muscular contractions on the ergograph, 
rather than by the extent of the single contractions.) 
t Dodge and Benedict, working in the Nutrition 
Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute, found that in- 
stead of alcohol being a general stimulant as is 
commonly supposed, it is really a depressant. In 
only one case, namely, the pulse rate, did they find 
an acceleration ; but even this was not an absolute in- 
crease in rate and represented only the absence of 
the gradual decrease in pulse rate in the course of 
moderate mental and physical work. In the case 
of simple reflex and sensory processes, this depres- 
sion expressed in per cent is as follows : 

Increase of latent time of the knee jerk 10 per cent 

Decrease in thickening of the quadriceps 

muscle 46 

Protective eyelid reflex, latent time in- 
creased 7 

Extent of eyelid movement decreased ...... 19 

Eye reactions, latent time increased 5 

Speed of eye movements decreased 11 

Sensitivity to electric stimulation decreased. 14 
Speed of finger movements (tapping) de- 
creased 9 

Evidence concerning the influence of long con- 
tinued use of alcohol is not experimental in char- 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 173 

acter, but consists in reports of military campaigns 
and the like, in which the whole problem is extremely 
complicated, so much so that the inferences concern- 
ing endurance under alcohol are of little significance. 
The conclusions that have been reached are that 
alcohol decreases endurance and increases suscepti- 
bility to fatigue. 

Pathological evidence of the effects of alcohol are 
more definite, although here extreme cases are usu- 
ally cited. Examination of the tissues of confirmed 
drunkards after death shows pathological changes in 
stomach, liver, heart and especially in the nervous 
system, — findings which lead to the classification of 
alcohol as a tissue poison when its use is immod- 
erate and continued for long periods. 

Concerning the influence of alcohol on mental ef- 
ficiency, popular opinion must be clearly distin- 
guished from the results of scientific experiment. 
Alcohol in small doses is commonly supposed to in- 
crease mental activity, and to produce a feeling of 
general well-being, effects which quickly disappear 
when larger doses are taken. Under careful experi- 
mental conditions, Dodge and Benedict found that 
memory and association were only slightly affected 
and in the direction of a decrease in efficiency. Other 
experiments upon mental multiplication of four- 
place numbers and upon typewriting show little or 
no effect from doses of alcohol varying in size from 
5 to 40 cubic centimeters, either in quantity of work 
done or in its quality. One other research on atten- 



174 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

tion as measured by the ability to hit a moving tar- 
get, indicated that after a dose of 15 cubic centi- 
meters of alcohol one person was not at all affected 
while the efficiency of the other was slightly reduced. 
After reviewing all of the work upon the mental 
and motor effects of alcohol, Eivers concludes : 

In the case of muscular work, we have seen that there is 
definite evidence that small doses, varying from 5 to 20 cc. 
of absolute alcohol have no effect on the amount or nature 
of the work performed with the ergograph, either imme- 
diately or within several hours of their administration, the 
results previously obtained by other workers being almost 
certainly due to defects of experimental method. With 
a larger dose of 40 cc, there was evidence in one case at 
least of an increase in the amount of work under the in- 
fluence of the substance ; but the increase was uncertain and 
inconstant, and the possibility cannot be excluded that it 
was due to disturbing factors. ... In the case of mental 
work, the available evidence points to a decrease in the 
amount of work under the influence of alcohol when there 
is an effect at all ; but there are very great individual dif- 
ferences, even the large dose of 100 cc. failing to show any 
effect in some persons. 

One further fact in regard to effects of alcohol 
may be mentioned, namely, the relation between al- 
coholism in the parents and the mentality of off- 
spring. Statistics show that the percentage of fee- 
ble-minded persons in the families of alcoholics is 
much higher than in the families of non-alcoholics — 
according to Goddard sometimes 35 per cent higher. 
Hence, we might conclude that alcoholism almost 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 175 

doubles the number of feeble-minded. But the case 
is not perfectly clear, for the alcoholism itself may 
be the result of feeble-mindedness in the parent, 
and in that case the feeble-mindedness would be 
transmitted directly to the children. The conclu- 
sion drawn by Goddard is significant: 

Everything seems to indicate that alcoholism itself is 
only a symptom, that it for the most part occurs in fam- 
ilies where there is some form of neurotic taint, especially 
feeble-mindedness. The percentage of our alcoholics that 
are also feeble-minded is very great. Indeed, one may say 
without fear of dispute, that more people are alcoholic be- 
cause they are feeble-minded than vice versa. 

A new sort of investigation has been undertaken 
recently to determine the influence of alcohol on 
mental processes, and it promises valuable results. 
Tests are being made of the effects of alcohol on the 
intelligence of animals, as indicated by their ability 
to learn to find their way out of a maze. It has 
been reported that "rats fed on alcohol average a 
longer time in the maze and make more errors, both 
at the beginning and during the latter part of the 
training period than normal rats. ' ' Another investi- 
gator finds that a dose of alcohol given to a rat 
immediately after a learning period will nullify the 
effects of the learning. The value of such work lies 
in the amount of control over the subjects, and the 
simplicity of the conditions of the experiment. 

Practical conclusions are not difficult to draw in 



176 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

the case of alcohol and efficiency. Alcohol may pos- 
sibly be taken in small quantities with benefit by the 
aged and certain types of invalids, where it may 
serve as a food. But over against this is the evi- 
dence that it is not a stimulant to increased efficiency 
for normals, but rather a depressant. In addition, 
alcohol belongs to the class of habit-forming sub- 
stances, against indulgence in which the body offers 
no check, such as is present in the case of overeating. 
Thus there is great likelihood of indulgence until 
the body tissues are injured. There is no doubt of 
the ill effects of the excessive use of alcohol. Large 
industries and railroads are beginning to recognize 
the danger from its use and have made abstinence 
a necessary qualification for employment. The de- 
crease in the use of alcohol as a medicine by physi- 
cians is evidence that even in this field it is not in- 
dispensable. 

Caffeine-containing Substances. — Caffeine as the 
active principle of many of the common beverages, 
such as coffee, tea and soda fountain drinks, has 
been the subject of many investigations. Since it 
is so commonly used by persons who shun any other 
stimulating drinks, it is important that its real effect 
should be known. The popular impression is that 
it acts as a stimulus to both muscular and mental 
work, especially the latter. There is much evidence 
that coffee and tea and other substances containing 
caffeine should be called habit-forming drinks. The 
person wbo cannot be deprived of his strong coffee 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 177 

or tea without getting a headache, or at least being 
incapacitated for work, is a common spectacle. And 
an equally familiar case is that of the person who is 
kept awake all night by an after-dinner cup of coffee, 
or the student who drinks a cup of coffee to enable 
him to continue his studies beyond the hours when 
he usually retires. Are these popular notions sup- 
ported by experimental work? 

As in the case of the other drugs studied, most of 
the early work has produced conflicting and incon- 
clusive results. With the exception of one or two of 
the recent studies, the effect of moderate doses of 
caffeine taken in the form of tea or coffee is found 
to be a stimulation, producing an increase in the 
amount of muscular work done on the ergograph and 
the dynamometer. But although the careful work 
of Eivers confirmed these findings, his experiments 
designed to exclude all mental factors such as sug- 
gestion and interest show a much smaller increase 
than the earlier experiments. As in his work with 
alcohol he attributes this discrepancy to the failure 
of these workers to disguise the drug. Great differ- 
ences were found by him in the susceptibility of 
different persons to the drug, and in the duration 
of the effect. The tests of speed of movement, motor 
coordination and steadiness, made by Hollingworth 
on sixteen subjects over a period of forty days, in 
which every known precaution against errors was 
taken, show interesting physical effects of caffeine. 
It produced an increase in the speed of movement, 



178 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

the amount, which depends on the size of the dose, 
being about 4 per cent in a group of 12 persons. 
The doses ranged from 2 to 6 grains, the equivalent 
of which in terms of coffee and tea may be seen 
from the following figures: 

Average cup of hot black tea con- 
tains 1.5 grains of caffeine 

Average after-dinner cup of black 

coffee contains 1.5 " " 

Average glass of cold green tea con- 
tains 2.0 " " " 

Average cup of coffee with milk 

contains 2.5 " " <c 

The effect was noted usually within an hour after 
taking and lasted from 1 to 4 hours, according to the 
size of the dose. What is perhaps one of the most 
important findings is that no secondary depression 
followed the stimulation for a period of 72 hours, 
when record taking ceased. 

The motor coordination test, combining speed and 
accuracy of movement, 'shows a somewhat different 
result. Small doses produce stimulation, while 
larger doses, 4 to 6 grains, cause a retardation or 
decrease in efficiency following a brief initial stimu- 
lation. The greatest retardation noted for five per- 
sons averaged only 2.7 per cent. Individual differ- 
ences were prominent, with clear evidence that the 
magnitude of the effect varies inversely with the 
body weight of the person. The steadiness test, de- 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 179 

signed to give an indication of general nervousness, 
showed that doses of 1 to 4 grains produced slight 
nervousness, appearing several hours after the drug 
was taken. Larger doses of 6 grains produced 
greater nervousness, appearing sooner and increas- 
ing during a period of several hours. 

Fewer tests have been made of the mental effects 
of caffeine. Only two will be mentioned. Eivers 
found an increase in typewriting speed with no 
influence upon accuracy and in the aiming tests men- 
tioned earlier he found increased concentration of 
attention. Hollingworth used three groups of men- 
tal tests: (1) Association tests, including the nam- 
ing of simple colors, naming opposites to each of a 
series of words, and problems in simple addition. 
In this group of tests, doses of every size from 
smallest to largest produced a stimulation, which 
reached a maximum of 15 per cent in the opposites 
test, and varied from this amount to very slight im- 
provement in others. The effect lasted from three 
to seven hours, with no secondary reaction showing 
in any retardation that could be measured. (2) 
Choice tests, including the speed of perception and 
cancellation of specified characters from a large 
group of varied characters, and the speed with which 
visual objects could be discriminated and a move- 
ment appropriate to each be made. (Eeaction by 
the right hand when a blue color was seen and by 
the left hand when a red color was seen.) In this 
group a rather curious effect was noted. Small 



180 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

doses produce a retardation with decrease in quality 
of work. Larger doses, however, produce a stimula- 
tion within two hours, which may last until the fol- 
lowing day. (3) Typewriting tests, concerning 
which Hollingworth says: 

The speed of performance in typewriting is quickened 
by small doses of caffeine and retarded by large doses. The 
quality of the performance, as measured by the number 
of errors, both corrected and uncorrected, is superior for 
the whole range of caffeine doses to the quality yielded by 
the control days. Both types of errors seem to be influ- 
enced to about the same degree. The increase in speed 
is not gained at the expense of additional errors, but in- 
creased speed and decreased number of errors are simul- 
taneously present. 

These experiments also present evidence of the 
effect of caffeine on sleep and general health, when 
rigid experimental conditions are in force. Ex- 
tremely large individual differences were discovered. 
For most of the subjects, doses of 1 to 4 grains did 
not affect the quality or quantity of sleep; although 
there were a few individuals whose sleep was im- 
paired. With doses of 6 grains, however, the sleep 
of most of the persons was disturbed although 
even here there were exceptions. The greatest effect 
was always obtained when the drug was taken on 
an empty stomach. The most important factor in 
producing the individual differences seems to be the 
differences in the body weight. As far as general 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 181 

health is concerned, certain effects were manifested 
when the doses were larger than 4 grains. Head- 
aches, dizziness, feverishness, irritability and the 
like were reported, especially by the subjects lightest 
in weight. 

The experiments described lead to the following 
conclusion as stated by Hollingworth : 

The widespread consumption of caffeinic beverages un- 
der circumstances in which and by individuals for whom 
the use of other drugs is stringently prohibited or decried 
seems to be justified by the results of experiment. But it 
should be emphasized that the results of the investigation 
here reported bear only on the more or less immediate ef- 
fects of caffeine on performance. It is true that the in- 
vestigation as a whole covered a period of 40 days, and 
that in the intensive experiment the effect of single doses 
was traced for a period of 3 days. But the results cannot 
be carried over bodily to the question of the continuous 
use of the drug. One can only assume that if the constant 
use of caffeine in moderate amounts would prove deleteri- 
ous, some indication of such effect would have shown itself 
in the careful study of performance in tests covering a 
wide range of mental and motor processes, a wide range 
of doses and of individuals, and of time and conditions of 
administration. Nor can anything be said, on the basis of 
these results, concerning the physiological or neurological 
effect of caffeine, except in so far as integrity of structure 
can be inferred from unimpaired function or perform- 
ance. ... It should be further pointed out that . . . tea, 
coffee, and other caffeinic beverages . . . contain a variety 
of other substances which may be supposed to enhance or 
neutralize or otherwise modify the effect of the caffeine con- 
tent. Many of the results commonly attributde to these 



182 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

beverages undoubtedly come, in so far as they can be dem- 
onstrated at all under controlled conditions, from these 
non-caffeine ingredients. 

Strychnine and Other Drugs. — Our interest has 
thus far been limited to the drugs which are well 
known and rather commonly used. Strychnine may 
not seem to belong to this class. It is prescribed by 
physicians as a bitter to stimulate the appetite and 
to heighten lowered nervous irritability. But nu- 
merous cases have been reported recently where 
strychnine has been taken on account of its supposed 
stimulating effects upon mental activity, hence 
it may rightly be considered as a factor in efficiency. 
Early experiments have indicated that strychnine 
caused a temporary stimulation followed by a reac- 
tion of the opposite type. Poffenberger recently 
tested the physical effects, as represented by its in- 
fluence on steadiness, accuracy and speed of move- 
ment, and muscular work. Doses ranged in size 
from 1/30 to 1/20 grain. No effects were noted upon 
strength and endurance. The tests of speed and 
accuracy of movement indicated neither stimulation 
nor retardation. Only a slight decrease in steadi- 
ness appeared after the larger dose. The same in- 
vestigator found neither stimulation nor retardation 
in a series of mental tests during the course of the 
experiment. As compared with caffeine, strychnine 
seems to affect the reflexes and lower centers of the 
nervous system, increasing their irritability and 
general sensitivity to external stimuli, while the 



DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 183 

higher centers involved in mental activity are least 
affected ; in the case of caffeine, it is just the higher 
centers which seem to be most affected. The physio- 
logical studies of these two drags seem to bear out 
the conclusions just stated. 

To postpone temporarily the onset of fatigue in 
tests of physical endurance, strychnine might be of 
service. But in the case of mental work, where the 
higher centers are involved, strychnine would be of 
no value. The influence of suggestion where such a 
supposedly powerful drug is concerned is tremen- 
dous, and if this factor were eliminated, it is likely 
that those mental operations and all other processes 
where popular opinion attributes such effects to. 
strychnine, would not be influenced one way or the 
other by ordinary doses. How the long-continued 
use of large doses would affect efficiency remains to 
be discovered, but there are not the slightest indi- 
cations that the effect would be beneficial. 

Little need be said of the group of drugs including 
opium, morphine, cocaine, etc., as there is no ques- 
tion of their evil effects from the standpoint of effi- 
ciency. Certain experiments with cocaine have 
shown most remarkable temporary increases in 
strength, sometimes as high as 100 per cent. But 
they represent the group of habit forming drugs 
with all their demoralizing effects, and no transient 
effects would justify their use except under the 
direction of a skilled physician. 

One of the most striking results of all work on 



184 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

drugs is the discovery of great individual differences 
in response to varying doses, and especially in the 
resistance offered to large doses. This is a cir- 
cumstance that prevents any recommendation of 
their use. The experimental work described in this 
chapter forces us to draw the conclusion that in 
every case except beverages containing caffeine, 
efficiency forbids their use. And even here, large 
doses taken for relatively short periods show dis- 
turbances in the general bodily economy of some 
individuals. 



CHAPTEE X 

METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY IN SPECIAL 

FIELDS 

1st the various practical fields there are three 
ways in which, in the past, psychological work has 
been accomplished. These three methods we may 
conveniently designate: (a) application of the psy- 
chological attitude; (b) application of psychological 
knowledge; (c) application of psychological tech- 
nique. 

The Psychological Attitude.— Especially charac- 
teristic of psychology as a science is the attitude 
of analysis. Geography and geology are concerned 
mainly with the description of their materials, and 
neither the geographer nor the geologist commonly 
takes a strictly analytic attitude toward these mate- 
rials. The botanist and zoologist are mainly engaged 
in classification, the physicist mainly in measure- 
ment, the physician mainly in effecting changes in 
his patients. The psychologist, on the other hand, 
especially in the earlier stages of his science, has 
been much occupied with the analysis of his mate- 
rials into their elements and constituents. Thus he 
analyzes an action into its stages, an emotion into 

185 



186 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

its simpler component feelings, a thought process 
into its various aspects. 

In practical life the worker commonly fails to 
make such an analysis of the materials and tasks 
with which he deals. The whole task or the whole 
material commonly stands out as a unit or mass, 
given once for all in its entirety. But such an un- 
analytic attitude of m results in inefficient work 
and superfluous en aavor. Thus the art of educa- 
tion made a definite advance when the task of the 
teacher was analyzed into the various separate steps 
involved in preparing, arranging, presenting, im- 
pressing and applying the subject matter of the reci- 
tation. Only when such an analysis was made was 
it possible to trace to their sources the various 
factors and influences which had up to that time re- 
mained obscure or refractory. Similarly the work 
of the advertising writer is facilitated when he 
ceases to think of his task as a single act, "writing 
an advertisement, ' ' and realizes that in this act 
there is a considerable variety of separate tasks or 
processes into which the whole may be analyzed. 
The salesman comes in time to realize that "making 
a sale," although apparently continuous and simple, 
comprises in reality a complex series of steps, such 
as those now commonly designated " approach, " 
"presentation," "arousal of interest,' ' " argu- 
ment, " "closing the deal," etc. 

Taking such an attitude of analysis toward one's 
practical work is then one of the most useful meth- 



METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY 187 

ods of improving skill and detecting the sources of 
inefficiency. Even so unitary a task as "washing 
the dishes, ' ' when analyzed into the various distinct 
steps which make it up, yields itself to more scien- 
tific study. Thus Christine Frederick, in making 
such a scientific examination of this household task, 
writes : 

When we say "dishwashing" we commonly think of a 
single household task. But when closely analyzed and 
made the subject of a time or motion study, we see that 
it is composed of several parts or steps, each with differ- 
ent motions, and generally performed with different tools, 
as follows: 
1. — Scraping waste from surface of china, agate, or other 

kind of dish or utensil. 
2. — Stacking or arranging dishes on surface adjacent to 

sink preparatory to washing. 
3. — Actual washing with water, soap or other cleanser, with 

aid of cloth, mop, or other mechanical means. 
4. — Einsing dishes with clear water. 
5. — Wiping dishes with towel or equivalent drying. 
6. — Laying away dishes on or in respective shelves and 

cupboards. 
The efficiency of the whole process of "dishwashing" can 
be improved only by increasing the efficiency of each sepa- 
rate step. 

By the same type of analysis Gilbreth was enabled 
to treble the work of bricklayers, and various man- 
agement experts have been enabled to discover the 
sources of loss, waste, fatigue, and accident. Such 
work may justly be called psychological, inasmuch 
as it involves a special mental attitude, inasmuch aa 



188 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

the materials thus analyzed are commonly human 
movements and general behavior, and inasmuch as 
the training of the psychological worker seems espe- 
cially to prepare him for such an analytic method 
of approach. 

Applying Psychological Knowledge. —Quite dis- 
tinct from the attitude of analysis is that procedure 
in which one acquires certain established facts or 
laws concerning mental processes or behavior, and, 
carrying them over into his practical work, applies 
them directly to some concrete problem there en- 
countered. This we may designate the application 
of psychological content or knowledge. Thus in the 
work of the printer and typographer, numerous 
facts concerning the psychology of reading and the 
laws of perception may find direct application. The 
appropriate size of type, the length of printed line, 
choice of font, spacing of letters and words, use of 
borders and ornaments, brightness of paper, color 
of ink, amount of white space, plan of indentation 
and arrangement and a host of definite problems 
of immediately practical value can be solved cor- 
rectly only through the application of some badly 
understood rule of thumb, or, more intelligently, 
through reference to the laws of visual perception. 

The case of the pedagogy of reading affords an 
interesting instance of this type of application. 
Psychological studies revealed the general law that 
the process of perceiving a new object and compre- 
hending its meaning is an analytic rather than a 



METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY 189 

synthetic act. We commonly get first an impression 
of the whole, then gradually or on later occasions 
discriminate out of this whole or within it the ele- 
ments which compose it. Using words and letters 
as objects of experiment, it was found that one could 
correctly read words which were so small, so far 
away, so out of the line of fixation, or so swiftly 
exposed, that the separate letters could not be cor- 
rectly identified. The words appeared to be recog- 
nized by their characteristic form rather than by 
the putting together of the separate letters. So 
strong is this tendency to perceive the word as a 
whole, by its "word form," that misspellings may 
easily fail to be noticed even when one is earnestly 
searching them out. Up to this point the facts are 
but an interesting bit of psychology. But as soon 
as teachers of reading perceived the significance of 
these facts, the whole procedure of teaching to read 
was revolutionized. No longer was the struggling 
pupil required first to learn his dreary A, B, C's, 
and then to put the various letters together in the 
form of syllables, which in turn must be combined 
to form the more interesting and meaningful words. 
Instead he was taught much more quickly and much 
more interestingly by the "word method," in which 
he rapidly became familiar with a variety of words 
and phrases and their meanings, and later, by a 
much more natural or psychological process, came 
to observe the separate syllables and letters of which 
each word was composed. 



190 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

In numerous practical fields the laws and facts ot 
psychology may be thus applied to some practical 
end. In salesmanship a knowledge of the laws of 
suggestion ; in advertising, the laws of attention and 
interest ; in study, the facts of memory ; in manage- 
ment, the knowledge of the motives and impulses of 
men; in animal training, the laws of learning; in 
politics and oratory, the tendencies of crowd forma- 
tion and group behavior ; in the decorative arts, the 
laws of esthetic reaction ; in literature, the acquain- 
tance with the range and complex interrelations of 
purpose and emotion ; in industry, the psychological 
laws of work and rest, fatigue and inhibition, habit 
and distraction; in social work, the facts of mental 
abnormality. In fact there would seem to be no 
end to the catalogue of practical fields in which 
familiarity with the laws of mental life may be 
utilized to direct advantage. Indeed, it is this type 
of application which most commonly comes to mind 
when "applied psychology" is mentioned. 

Application of Psychological Technique. — Finally 
there is the third type of application, which is rap- 
idly coming to be even more definitely useful than 
the " knowledge of human nature" just described. 
This is the type of work in which one does not 
necessarily proceed by assuming an attitude of 
analysis, nor yet by bringing over bodily some piece 
of psychological lore or knowledge. Instead, in this 
form, one adapts to the solution of his special prac- 
tical problem some method of procedure, some stand- 



METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY 191 

ardized technique, or some special form of appara- 
tus originally developed in the psychological labora- 
tory. 

For numerous reasons the psychologist has found 
it necessary to devise methods of investigation pe- 
culiar to his science. Among these reasons may be 
mentioned the variability, complexity and delicacy 
of the materials which he studies. Countless sources 
of error confront the psychological worker, with 
which the other sciences do not have to contend. 
Thus, in measuring the expansion of a piece of iron 
under the influence of varying temperature it makes 
no difference whether the observations are made in 
the morning or at midnight, on Monday or on Satur- 
day, by a male or female, young person or adult, in 
India or in Africa, with the right hand or the left 
hand. None of these factors influences the reaction 
of the piece of iron. But in even the simplest of 
psychological measurements, — whether of the keen- 
ness of vision, the flow of images, the sequence of 
ideas, — any or all of these and a host of other vari- 
ables may influence the outcome. In order to take 
into account these manifold conditions and in order 
to detect, underneath all the complex variables, the 
direction of the processes uppermost in interest at 
the moment, an experimental technique is required 
which is more refined and precise than that of any 
other branch of science. In many cases also the 
apparatus used and the mode of graphic record 
employed are particularly delicate. Especially im- 



192 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

portant, however, are the control of conditions, the 
elimination of sources of error, and the mathemat- 
ical and statistical methods of computation. 

Consequently in many practical fields, such as 
medicine, law, industry, teaching, management, leg- 
islation, marketing, where the " human element' 9 is 
a conspicuous factor in the success or failure of an 
enterprise or an inquiry, it is found useful to carry 
over either completely or in a modified form the 
technique, procedure, or apparatus originally de- 
vised for the solution of the problems of general 
psychology. In such cases the results are not always 
of value to psychology as a science, although this 
may often be the case. In general, however, the 
result is a solution of the particular practical prob- 
lem in its particular setting, and as such may be of 
great concrete value. 

Thus, in the general field of medicine the psycho- 
logical technique is found to be the only one ade- 
quate to answer many questions concerning the 
immediate effects of drugs, and of such factors in 
the environment as humidity, temperature, fatigue, 
posture. In the treatment of various types of dis- 
order also, psychological technique is found to be 
the most effective. In business the laboratory 
methods have been effectively applied to the meas- 
urement of advertisements and sales points, pack- 
ages, trade-marks, trade names, etc. In industry 
the application of "reaction time" technique and 
apparatus has become the "motion and time study" 



METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY 193 

of the modern workshop. In law the "recognition 
method" is coming to be used in the measurement 
of infringement and the validity of testimony; the 
"methods of mental measurement " are used in the 
determination of responsibility; and the "methods 
of expression' 9 in the accumulation of evidence and 
the discovery of guilt or knowledge. 

The utilization of psychological attitude, psycho- 
logical knowledge, psychological technique, then, 
affords the three principal ways in which psychology 
may be "applied" in the various practical fields, 
and in which these practical fields may aid in the 
development of "applied psychology." These three 
methods have not in the past been found equally 
serviceable in all the various fields of practice. In 
the chapters which follow, certain fields are pre- 
sented in which one or more of these methods has 
been sufficiently used to make some material con- 
tribution either to psychology as a science or to 
the concrete practice of daily life. 



CHAPTEE XI 

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 

From the point of view of one engaged in the 
active supervision of industrial and commercial 
enterprise the three chief ways in which the atti- 
tude, content and technique of psychology may be 
put to practical use are (a) , in the selection of 
employees through a more adequate vocational diag- 
nosis of their general mental capacity or their spe- 
cial aptitudes; (b) in the organization and manage- 
ment of groups of workers through the effective pro- 
vision of incentive and reward and through compe- 
tent instruction and training; and (c) in the provi- 
sion of the most effective environmental conditions. 

Selection of Employees.— Since not every kind of 
work can be done equally well by any individual, 
misfits in vocation are constantly occurring. In- 
competents are often placed in responsible positions 
or otherwise competent persons placed at tasks for 
which they may be found to have either no inclina- 
tion, a strong dislike, or perhaps no particular apti- 
tude. Unless great care is exercised, therefore, the 
employees in large commercial and industrial con- 
cerns may easily become a shifting population, aban- 

194 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 195 

doning their work for want of interest in it or being 
dismissed for unsatisfactory service. In many such 
cases the " labor turnover/ 9 — the number of indi- 
viduals who enter the employ of a given firm during 
a given period of time, as a year, may amount to 
five or even ten times the number actually working 
at any one time. This means loss through ineffi- 
cient service, through the constant necessity of 
training new workers and through the maintenance 
of a complicated and busy employment and train- 
ing department. 

The executive or employer has been so eager to 
find some means of reducing this loss that he has 
taken up one after the other a variety of aids which 
either pretended or seriously attempted to enable 
him to fit the worker to his appropriate task. Im- 
pressionistic interviews, photographic analysis, let- 
ters of recommendation, letters of application and 
application forms, phrenological and physiognomic 
descriptions, and numerous other diagnostic aids 
have in turn been tried and found to be either 
utterly absurd or manifestly inadequate to deter- 
mine either general or specific fitness. 

In recent years the interest in the development of 
mental tests and scales, primarily for the determi- 
nation of general intelligence or for particular school 
abilities, has led to the hope that in addition to 
such value as these intelligence and product scales 
obviously have in vocational selection, specific tests 
might be devised which would measure such par- 



196 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ticular aptitudes as might be demanded by a given 
type of work. If tests could be provided which 
would enable the employer to select, from a list of 
applicants, those most likely to be successful at the 
work in question, this would greatly decrease the 
loss which all the other aids to selection seem unable 
to reduce. Even sets of tests which would be inade- 
quate for the vocational diagnosis and guidance of 
the individual might still be of inestimable use to 
the employer. 

The most fruitful method of discovering relation- 
ships between tests and aptitudes for various kinds 
of work seems, from the experience of many con- 
cerns who are now utilizing such aids, to be as 
follows : A group of workers whose relative abilities 
in the work in question are already fairly well known 
and capable of expression in quantitative or at 
least in relative terms, is chosen. To these indi- 
viduals, good, average and poor, are given as many 
forms and varieties of psychological tests as the 
patience of the worker, the zeal of the experimenter 
or the interest of the employer makes possible. 
Ability in each test is then compared with ability 
in the work. Certain tests may in this way be found 
which serve as indices of occupational capacity, — - 
good workers perform these tests well, poor workers 
do them poorly. Of thirty or forty tests thus tried 
out perhaps only four or five will seem to possess 
this diagnostic significance, and only these four or 
five are retained as tests for the type of ability in 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 197 

question. If these results now stand the test of 
repeated trial and constantly correlate with the 
occupational success or failure, the employer has 
secured a valuable instrument which may be used 
in the examination and selection of new employees 
from lists of applicants. 

With these successful samples as a basis the 
psychologist may devise further tests which seem 
to involve similar principles or call for similar types 
of special proficiency. He will also be interested 
in discovering the reasons for this particular corre- 
lations, and may thus be able to throw new light both 
on business practice and on the work of his science. 

By such methods and their elaboration there have 
already been devised or selected tentative sets of 
occupational tests for a considerable variety of types 
of work. Conspicuous in this form of applied psy- 
chology is the work of Scott in the formulation of 
tests for salesmen and that of Thorndike and his 
co-workers in the derivation of tests for various 
types of clerical, mechanical and academic work. 
Miinsterberg advocated the use of various tests 
devised in his laboratory for aid in vocational se- 
lection, his own interest lying in the ingenious sug- 
gestion of types of test rather than in the careful 
determination of their actual validity. Following 
the lead of Thorndike, Scott, Miinsterberg and 
others there has come to be at the present day a 
wide-spread activity in this field. Some of the 
teams of tests that have resulted from this type of 



198 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

investigation are given in the following Table. The 
tests are for the most part such as are familiar by 
name to the psychological worker and no attempt 
can be made here either to describe them or to give 
standard procedure for their administration. The 
practical reader should, however, be cautioned that 
psychological tests are of no value unless in their 
administration, scoring and weighting the standard 
procedure is followed. In each case the figures fol- 
lowing the name of the test indicate the actual 
degree of correlation between performance in the 
test and some objective measure of occupational 
proficiency. It may safely be said that all of these 
correlations are higher than those between the usual 
off-hand or traditional methods of selection and ac- 
tual proficiency. 

Tests for Vocational Selection 

(The tests are indicated by their conventional laboratory 
name, and the figures in each case indicate degree of corre- 
lation between ability in the test and some objective meas- 
ure of ability in the actual work of the vocation. [Data 
from Allen, Jones, Lahy, Lough, McComas, Kogers, $eott, 
Trabue, and others].) 

stenographers telegraphers 

Naming Opposites 45 Immediate Memory 52 

Form Substitution 40 Naming Opposites 51 

Following Directions... .46 Completion 52 

Color Naming. 34 Substitution 39 

Letter Substitution 82 School Grade 77 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 199 



CLERICAL WORKERS 

Directions 57 

Naming Opposites 55 

Part-Whole 49 

Whole-Part 65 

Completion 59 

Absurdities 36 



MINOR EXECUTIVES 

Better Eeasons 76 

Absurdities 46 

Completion 43 

Mixed Relations 46 

Part-Whole 46 

Opposites 36 

Color Naming 46 



SPECIALIZED OPERATORS 

Color Naming 32 

Form Naming 48 

Completion 71 

Aiming 62 

False Statements 67 

Absurdities 56 



TYPEWRITERS 

Number Checking 53 

Letter Substitution 96 

Color Naming 45 

Action-Agent 43 

Verb-Object 55 

Memory Span 50 



CORRESPONDENTS 

Naming Opposites 40 

Following Directions. . . .54 

Mixed Relations 43 

Color Naming 38 

Action-Agent « . . .35 

Agent- Action .37 

Verb-Object 37 



HAND SEWING 

Tapping Rate 34 

Following Directions. . . .53 

Naming Opposites 41 

Color Naming 43 

Logical Memory 37 



LABEL PASTING 

Knox Cube 73 

Card Sorting 42 

Substitution 50 

Naming Opposites 41 

Color Naming. 51 

Following Directions. . . .50 



MACHINE STITCHING 

Mixed Relations 58 

Logical Memory 36 

Accuracy of Aim 44 

Naming Opposites 44 

Color Naming 36 

Following Directions. . . .38 



200 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ENGINEERS 

Completion 63 

Card Sorting 47 

Construction .35 

Invention 66 

Omnibus 66 

Imagination 66 

The degree of correspondence between such men- 
tal tests and success in a definite type of work is 
shown by the following instance: Fifty salesmen, 
engaged in selling all manner of commodities in all 
manner of ways, ranging in age from twenty to fifty 
years, and of course having had varying amounts 
of experience, were examined by means of three 
sets of selected mental tests. In the case of each 
individual his present salary was divided by the 
jiumber of years of selling that had enabled him to 
attain that salary. This measure of success as a 
salesman is admittedly a rough one, but no more 
satisfactory measure could be devised for compar- 
ing the members of so heterogeneous a group. The 
individuals were then arranged in four groups in 
the case of each of the sets of tests, according to 
the score attained, giving groups which might be 
designated as superior, good, fair and poor. Then 
the average salary per year of experience was com- 
puted for each of these groups. The results are 
given in the following table : 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 201 

Comparison of Ability in Tests with Ability in 

Salesmanship 







Salary per 




Number 


Test Series 


Score 


year of 


Probable 


of 






Experi- 


Error 


Individ- 






ence 




uals 


Series I, Tests 


Over 550 


$765 


$170 


11 


for Judgment, 


400-550 


968 


168 


15 


Comprehension, 


250-400 


934 


138 


19 


etc. 


Under 250 


612 


111 


5 


Series II, Tests 


Over 230 


1085 


197 


8 


for Perception, 


215-230 


845 


157 


9 


Discrimination, 


200-215 


829 


91 


21 


etc. 


Under 200 


674 


80 


12 


Series III, A 


Over 40 


1161 


256 


10 


Test for Gen- 


30-40 


833 


108 


19 


eral Intelli- 


20-30 


822 


113 


17 


gence. 


Under 20 


492 


106 


4 



The mental tests, although, their administration 
required only thirty-five minutes, are seen to divide 
the salesmen in a fairly reliable way into groups 
of superior, good, fair and poor earning power, and 
to this extent would seem to be of genuine value in 
differentiating the members of the group on the 
basis of their proficiency in selling. 

Organization, Management and the Psychological 
Attitude.— In the intensive study of methods of in- 



202 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

dustrial organization and management that has been 
going on in recent years the psychological factors 
have been found to be as important as the mechan- 
ical, technical, accounting or distributing machin- 
ery. "Experience has clearly demonstrated," says 
Gilbreth, "that the emphasis in successful manage- 
ment lies on the man, not on the work ; that efficiency 
is best secured by placing the emphasis on the man 
and modifying the equipment, materials and meth- 
ods to make the most of the man. It has further 
recognized that the man's mind is a controlling 
factor in his efficiency, and has, by teaching, enabled 
the man to make the most of his powers. In order 
to understand this teaching element that is such a 
large part of management, a knowledge of psychol- 
ogy is imperative." It should also be said that 
the problems of management constitute an inviting 
field of research for psychology, as well as an imme- 
diate field of application. 

The value of the attitude of analysis is clearly 
shown in the various attempts to reduce the work 
of management into its" elements ' ' or " principles. ' ' 
The well-known Taylor system of management 
stressed nine chief factors as making up the work 
of management, thus taking a psychological atti- 
tude toward what might otherwise have been con- 
sidered as a single task. Once such an analysis had 
been satisfactorily made it was possible to apply it 
to the most varied institutions and organizations. 
The management of a factory, a hospital, a kitchen, 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 203 

an army, an athletic team, a newspaper office, or 
even the human body, was found to be greatly facili- 
tated, ordered and improved by the mere act of con- 
sidering it from this analytic point of view. 

Furthermore every one of these elementary phases 
of management is seen at once to involve the appli- 
cation of the laws of human behavior, or through 
its problems to call for the utilization of the tech- 
nique of psychological research. It may be profit- 
able to consider some of the " elements' ' of modern 
systems of management for the sake of indicating 
the psychological problems and principles which 
they suggest. Under one such system, for example, 
the "elements" are stated to be, — individuality, 
functionalization, measurement, analysis and syn- 
thesis, standardization, records and programs, 
teaching, incentives, welfare. 

Individuality and Differential Psychology.— Un- 
der the traditional forms of management the 
"gang" was the unit of operation, record, remun- 
eration and teaching. There was but little effort 
made to select or adapt the individual according to 
his idiosyncrasies, to instruct him individually or 
individually to record or reward his work. Under 
modern systems of management the psychology of 
individual differences is important, and the indi- 
vidualization of management takes its place in his- 
tory with the individualization of pedagogy and the 
individualization of punishment. Thus Gilbreth 
writes : 



204 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Under scientific management the individual is the unit 
to be measured. Functionalization i? based upon utilizing 
the particular powers and special abilities of each man. 
Measurement is of the individual man and his work. An- 
alysis and synthesis build up methods by which the indi- 
vidual can best do his work. Standards are of the work of 
an individual, a standard man, and the task is always for 
an individual, being that percentage of the standard man's 
task that the particular individual can do. "Records are of 
individuals and are made in order to show and reward in- 
dividual effort. Specific individuals are taught those things 
that they individually require. Incentives are individual, 
both in the cases of rewards and punishments, and finally, 
it is the welfare of the individual worker that is consid- 
ered, without the sacrifice of any for the good of the whole. 

Still more recently, under such terms as " indus- 
trial democracy/ ' the plan of organization is such 
that the 'workers constitute their own management, 
or have a decisive voice in determining the general 
policies covering such matters as hours of work, 
method of remuneration, selection of foremen, or 
through ownership of stock or some form of profit- 
sharing system, become virtual partners in the en- 
terprise. 

Functionalization and Its Mental Effects.— By 
this process is meant (a) the analysis of the work 
into its primary elements or tasks, such as planning, 
recording, repairing, teaching, supervision, etc. ; 
and (b) specializing the worker by assigning him 
to that task in the industry for which his particu- 
lar capacities, whether as laborer, foreman, teacher, 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 805 

executive, best qualify him, and thereby (c) reduc- 
ing his functions or intensifying them. Thus one 
of Taylor's stated principles was, — "Each man 
from the assistant superintendent down shall havs 
as few functions as possible to perform." Innu- 
merable psychological problems are involved in this 
principle, — not only those of adequately determin- 
ing the special qualifications and interests of the 
individual, but, supposing this to be accomplished, 
the problem of determining the effect of such re- 
striction of activity upon the worker himself, the 
educational advantages and defects of unvaried per- 
formance, problems of ennui, monotony, interest 
and general mental attitude. It is obvious that the 
psychological effects of management systems are as 
important and concrete as are the psychological 
factors involved in their application. 

Measurement and Psychological Technique.— 
Inasmuch as both individual recognition and spe- 
cialization depend on the determination of the 
qualifications, success and performance of each per- 
son concerned, measurement of human factors is 
one of the important aspects of modern manage- 
ment. The effects of variables in environment, tools, 
and methods of work must be accurately made out, 
and this calls for the development of special tech- 
nique. Since most of the measurement is of human 
reactions, practice, skill, adaptation, fatigue, im- 
provement, etc., the graphic and statistical methods 
long used in the psychological laboratory are find- 



206 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ing a place in the industrial laboratory as well. 
They are receiving there, in the hands of skillful 
and zealous investigators, various forms of modifi- 
cation, elaboration and refinement which may well 
be expected to enhance their value for direct psy- 
chological and educational research. Furthermore, 
it is being found that for the accurate measurement 
of industrial products it is in many cases necessary 
to devise scales of measurement, similar to those 
which psychologists have devised for the measure- 
ment of such school products as writing, drawing, 
composition, etc. Such measurement is especially 
necessary when the industrial product may vary 
in quality as well as in amount. An example would 
be found in the formation of a graded scale for the 
measurement of hand sewing in which the successive 
steps would be represented by actual specimens, 
arranged, by a special laboratory technique, in order 
of ascending value, and so chosen that the steps 
from one sample to another are in all cases equally 
perceptible. 

Analysis, Synthesis and the Instinct of Work- 
manship. — Under this head comes the interesting 
problem of the psychology of workmanship. Most 
important is the fact that the testimony of the 
experienced executive seems to contradict the asser- 
tions of many who have been interested in recording 
the original tendencies of human beings. According 
to Veblen, "Efficient use of the means at hand and 
adequate management of the resources available 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 207 

for the purposes of life is itself an end of endeavor, 
and accomplishment of this kind is a source of grat- 
ification/ ' This proclivity for workmanship is said 
to be " chief among those instinctive dispositions 
that conduce directly to the material well-being of 
the race," and is comparable in its influence and 
urgency with the "parental bent." "The instinct 
of workmanship brought the life of mankind from 
the brute to the human plane," etc. 

On the other hand, those actively engaged in the 
work of management are found to insist that one 
of the greatest evils of industry is the original 
tendency to "soldier" or "loaf on the job," to 
follow old rule of thumb methods of work, and to 
resent any effort to introduce more effective and 
productive technique. "This loafing or soldiering," 
says Taylor, "proceeds from two causes. First, 
from a natural instinct and tendency of men to take 
it easy, which may be called natural soldiering. 
Second, from more intricate second thought and 
reasoning, caused by their relations with other men, 
which may be called systematic soldiering." 

Whether or not the survival of ineffective methods 
in all forms of work results from present economic, 
social and managerial conditions, or whether the 
"instinct of workmanship" must needs be aban- 
doned as an original tendency in human nature is 
in itself a psychological problem of no little inter- 
est. But of more immediate consequence is a fact 
on which managers and teachers commonly agree. 



208 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

This fact was well stated by Taylor in the follow- 
ing words: 

In practically all of the mechanic arts the science which 
underlies each workman's act is so great and amounts to 
so much that the workman who is best suited to actually 
doing the work is incapable, either through lack of educa- 
tion or through insufficient mental capacity, of understand- 
ing this science. 

The incompetence of the worker to understand 
the science underlying the operations in which he 
is individually engaged makes necessary the 
analysis of these operations by some more expert 
observer, and the synthesis of their elements into 
a procedure which is scientifically ordered. This 
at once involves the next principle, that of stand- 
ardization. 

Standardization and the Psychology of Habit.— 
Standardization depends on the psychology of habit. 
The beginner at any type of skilled work, as type- 
writing, inevitably adopts a method which, though 
it may give the greatest immediate return, is not 
in the long run calculated to be most effective. 
Practice in such an ineffective work method estab- 
lishes a habit of performance which not only delays 
the formation of more appropriate habits, but may 
positively interfere with their development when 
an effort is made to acquire them. Faulty habits, 
whether in holding a violin, in mastering a key- 
board, in handwriting, in the use of words, in brick- 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 209 

laying, shingling, carrying loads, cutting metals or 
in handling simple or complicated tools or machin- 
ery, mean personal, industrial and professional 
waste. 

An important function of management in its 
scientific form consists in supplying the results of 
analysis, synthesis and expert study to the work 
in the form of standards of practice. Standards 
of practice mean, in this sense, habits of work which 
expert study shows to be ultimately, though perhaps 
not immediately, best calculated to promote the effi- 
ciency of the worker. 

Standardization goes even farther than the pre- 
scription of the most effective attitude and method 
on the part of the worker. Not only is there a 
standard method of ultimately mastering the key- 
board of a typewriter ; that keyboard is itself stand- 
ardized in such a way that when the operator passes 
from one machine or office to another the effective 
habits that have been once acquired will fit the new 
circumstances as well. Just as in the more strictly 
engineering features of industry it is found neces- 
sary to standardize such things as the size of nails 
and screws, the dimensions of bearings, pipes, 
wheels, tires, rails, etc., so the tools of the human 
worker, — the keyboards, the signals, the filing sys- 
tems, the sales slips, etc., should be standardized 
so as to fit the established habits of the worker. 

But still further, when work habits and tools are 
thus standardized, it becomes possible to standard- 



210 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ize performance itself in such a way that the worker 
who achieves, falls below, or exceeds the standard 
performance may be readily identified, rewarded 
and promoted,, In this way the formation of stand- 
ards, which may often seem, in the beginning, to 
constitute a violation of the principle of individual- 
ity, may be in the outcome a necessary means of 
attaining that end. 

Records, Programs and Educational Psychology. 
— "A man's social use," says James, "is the recog- 
nition which he gets from his mates. We are not 
only gregarious animals, liking to be liked in the 
sight of our fellows, but we have an innate pro- 
pensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favor- 
ably, by our kind." Such recognition the worker is 
afforded by the keeping of accurate records, by their 
publication or posting, their use in the assignment 
of reward or bonus, in the formulation of programs 
and schedules, and as a means of self-stimulation. 
The competitive social impulse may show itself in 
wholesome rivalry. In so far as this is possible 
it is more psychologically sound for the worker to 
keep his own records, inasmuch as this facilitates 
a direct comparison of achievement with his per- 
sonal experiences and effort, and especially since 
it encourages that most psychological of all forms 
of rivalry, — competition with one's own record. 

The actual graphic representation of such records 
by the worker or by the management from time to 
time, in the form of curves of learning, curves of 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 211 

work, curves of diurnal variation, curves of fatigue, 
accident curves, etc., is one of the most effective 
ways of stimulating initiative and encouraging un- 
derstanding. Practice without knowledge of results 
is much inferior, as a pedagogical procedure, to 
practice accompanied by constant awareness of the 
quality of one's performance. 

An interesting and practically important trait 
of human nature is the desire for some symbol 
whereby one's status may be socially established 
and declared. Not only do men work for wages and 
salaries, — they may also be effectively rewarded by 
titles, honors, badges, buttons, privileges, or by any 
simple device which facilitates or establishes social 
recognition. One of the most potent devices of our 
childhood, however artificial it may have been, was 
the "reward of merit" card, which was a sufficient 
inducement to stimulate us to earnest though wage- 
less work in arithmetic and geography. Profes- 
sional, administrative, political and military work- 
ers not infrequently prefer change of title to ad- 
vance in salary. The college student puts high value 
on his pins, letters, and similar emblems. The im- 
portance of the symbol as a type of reward finds 
just recognition in the organization, training and 
management of groups of operatives, salesmen, and 
similar workers. 

Incentives, Welfare and Social Psychology.— 
Under this heading come a host of managerial and 
executive problems in which human ji&ture plays 



212 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

an important role. Much of the literature on the 
various types of compensation or wage systems 
takes its stand on one or another characteristic of 
human instinct, desire, satisfaction, responsiveness, 
expectation, assurance, incentive or failing. The 
most striking feature of the various modern systems 
of management has been their discarding of the 
traditional incentives of fear, punishment, and com- 
pulsion, and the placing of emphasis on such factors 
as initiative, mental attitude, cooperation, loyalty, 
professional pride, etc. In one of the most recent 
movements the slogan, "industrial democracy'' 
means simply that the worker takes a responsible 
part in his own management, and that the i \ direct ' ' 
incentives, such as ambition, pride, fairness, love 
of the game, loyalty and social recognition take the 
place of the "indirect" incentives of wages, punish- 
ment, discharge and necessity. 

There is no more familiar fact of psychology than 
that the presence of an incentive or motive, arising, 
if possible, in a spontaneous and personal way, is 
a more important condition of effective work than 
any number of environmental details. Taylor, in 
referring to the influence of the "gang" on the 
individual worker, says : 

As an illustration of the value of a scientific study of the 
motives which influence workmen in their daily work, the 
loss of ambition and initiative will be cited, which takes 
place in workmen when they are herded into gangs in- 
stead of being treated as separate individuals* 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 213 

He then points out that under such circumstances 
the characteristic result is for the individual effi- 
ciency of each man to fall to or below the level of 
the poorest worker in the gang. 

On the other hand, it is well known that if an 
element of contest can be introduced, and one group, 
composed of workers who are bound by some physi- 
cal, social, religious or political sympathy is put in 
competition with another group, the gang spirit 
may work in just the reverse direction. Thus Gil- 
breth found that with teams of bricklayers extra 
zeal and effectiveness was produced by putting tall 
men on one job and short ones on a competing task. 
Such oppositions as married vs. single men, eastern 
vs. western men, and national groupings, were 
equally effective. There are plenty of illustrations 
in anyone's experience to show that working in 
company does not necessarily level down efficiency 
to the basis of the least effective worker. Com- 
panionship, friendliness, the consciousness of 
mutual endeavor, may easily work to increase the 
average level. The important point is whether the 
individual, in company, receives due recognition as 
an individual, either on his own responsibility or 
as a member of a "team' 9 rather than of a "gang." 

Psychological Influence of the Environment.— 
In a previous chapter, in connection with the con- 
ditions of personal efficiency, a variety of factors 
are discussed with which the scientific executive or 
manager should be familiar. Of particular impor- 



214 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

tance in the local management of workers are such 
factors as illumination, ventilation, posture, fa- 
tigue eliminating devices, rhythm, etc. Not only 
do the environmental factors in many cases exert 
a demonstrable influence on effectiveness of work, 
but the worker in turn acquires work habits with 
respect to these environmental factors. These work 
habits may be as important as the external influ- 
ences themselves. 

In many cases the arrangement, elevation and 
slope of the benches, work tables, chairs, etc., make 
the posture of the worker a feature that cannot be 
neglected. The fact that posture has a genuine 
influence on the effectiveness of work is not only a 
matter of common experience, but the degree of this 
influence is susceptible of quantitative measurement. 
One psychological investigator, impressed with the 
prevalent tendency on the part of acquaintances in 
a college dormitory to do their studying with their 
feet perched on a table or shelf, higher than the 
head, conducted a series of experiments on the 
effect of posture. Inquiry among men of eminence 
revealed the fact that there was a widespread pref- 
erence for a horizontal posture in the performance 
of mental work. The investigator put these matters 
to scientific test by arranging a tilt board on which 
an individual could be placed and tipped at angles 
ranging from the vertical or erect to the horizontal 
position. 

Tests were then conducted in which the individ- 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 215 

ual's ability was measured in the horizontal and 
vertical positions. The tests included measures of 
ability in visual memory, discrimination of pitch, 
tactual perception, auditory memory, mathematical 
calculation, fatigue, speed of movement and 
strength of grip In the case of the abilities which 
may be described as mental rather than muscular, 
the horizontal position was clearly superior, not 
only in the averages but consistently with different 
individuals. In the case of the more muscular 
activities the vertical position was found to be most 
favorable. Clearly even such apparently trivial 
factors as the position of the body, as determined 
by the apparatus and paraphernalia of work, the 
disposition of furniture and materials, may be of 
as much practical importance as the care and oiling 
of machinery or the promptness and punctuality of 
employees. 

The importance of lighting systems and of effi- 
cient illumination has already been pointed out. 
Tests of visual acuity, which indicate the ability of 
the eye to see correctly and to discriminate finely, 
show that so simple an error as that of having a 
light directly in the field of view may decrease the 
worker's visual efficiency from 25 to 30 per cent. 
It is, moreover, certain that various forms of eye 
strain, aggravated in many cases by imperfect 
illuminating systems, are among the important 
causes of nervousness, headache, drowsiness and 



216 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

fatigue, which may in many cases contribute toward 
the production of industrial accidents. 

Recent studies of the effect of various factors in 
the ventilation of the workshop seem to indicate 
that these factors do not operate in a direct physical 
or physiological way, but, in so far as they are 
effective, largely in a psychological manner, by do- 
ing violence to the worker's customary working 
habits, by distracting his attention, or by decreasing 
the comfort or satisfyingness of his work, rather 
than by decreasing his actual ability. Such investi- 
gations as those of the New York Ventilation Com- 
mission are of great scientific as well as practical 
value, especially since they seem to indicate that 
even such striking environmental factors as tem- 
perature, humidity, circulation of air, carbon diox- 
ide, etc., exert their chief influence on working 
capacity indirectly, through their psychological 
effects, rather than physiologically or physically. 

Eecent inquiries into the causes of industrial acci- 
dents indicate that at least 80 per cent of them are 
not due to faults in machinery or to unavoidable 
physical catastrophe, but to the failure of the human 
mechanism, either of the sufferer or of a fellow 
worker. In the efforts to discover the precise nature 
of these human sources of danger, various sugges- 
tions have been made. The most common explana- 
tion is that which attributes such accidents to care- 
lessness. But the fact that such accidents are not 
distributed uniformly through the working hours 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 217 

suggests that if carelessness is the responsible fac- 
tor there must be sought some further reason why 
carelessness asserts itself so much more danger- 
ously at some hours than at others. Some investi- 
gators have suggested fatigue as the responsible 
factor. But the curve of accidents through the day 
does not follow the course of fatigue, as measured 
during a day's work. The greater numbers of acci- 
dents do not come at the hours when the worker, 
since fatigued, is less efficient. On the contrary, 
they come at precisely those hours when the speed 
of production is the greatest and the workers doing 
their most effective work. Hence the suggestion has 
also been offered that accidents are likely to result 
at such times, because the worker's attention is 
drawn to the machinery and materials rather than 
toward his own body, and the protective reactions 
fail which would be more operative at a slower rate 
of work. It has also been shown that even during 
a short period, such as twenty minutes, of work 
similar in character to that which the machine oper- 
ator in a highly specialized industry would perform, 
there is a clear tendency for accidents or failures 
and errors to be more frequent in the latter half 
of the period than in the earlier half. When one 
observes the extremely simple and automatic char- 
acter of the movements involved in these factory 
operations it is not surprising to be told that the 
monotony of the work suffices in a few moments to 
induce wandering attention and absent-mindedness 



218 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

in the operator. Simple as the operations are, it 
is nevertheless true in many cases that an exceed- 
ingly small error in movement may involve the 
worker in serious accident. Whatever ultimate con- 
clusions may be reached as to the factors under- 
lying human carelessness in industry, it is clear that 
they will be found to be factors studied by the 
psychologist rather than by the mechanic or 
engineer. 

Finally among the environmental factors may be 
enumerated a variety of influences which, because 
of their power to stimulate effort or efficiently or- 
ganize work, have been called " dynamogenic. " 
Perhaps the most familiar of these is rhythm. The 
writer recalls having seen, in a foreign city, a group 
of laborers tamping in the cobblestones of a pave- 
ment with special blocks of iron attached to a 
handle. These implements were alternately raised 
into the air a foot or so and then brought down on 
top of a refractory cobblestone, which was thereby 
driven into place. But the workmen were not tamp- 
ing away, each at his own indiscriminate rate. 
Along the curb walked a foreman who beat with 
an iron bar a rhythmic series of strokes, which was 
followed in unison by the workers on the cobble. 
In this way they proceeded merrily and efficiently 
up the street. It appeared that the management 
found it more effective for one man to do nothing 
but beat the rhythm, than for all workers indiscrim- 
inately to wield their implements. The rhythm of 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 219 

work songs, sea songs, college yells, drum beats 
and the marching tune demonstrably so organize 
the individual's movements that they proceed more 
harmoniously, more regularly, more effectively and 
with less effort. Teachers find that in the class 
room, in conducting drills, or in various types of 
practice exercises, much may be gained by the im- 
position of more or less artificial rhythms which 
are in no particular way related to the habits being 
formed. 

In drill on column addition successful work is done by 
placing the problem on the board and following through 
the combinations by pointing the pointer and making a 
tap on the board as one proceeds through the column. 
Concert work of this sort seems to have the effect of speed- 
ing up those who would ordinarily lag, even though they 
might get the right result. The most skillful teachers of 
typewriting count or clap their hands or use the phono- 
graph for the sake of speeding up their students. They 
have discovered that the same amount of time devoted to 
typewriting practice will produce anywhere from twenty- 
five to one hundred per cent more speed under such arti- 
ficial stimulation than they were in the habit of getting 
merely by asking the students to practice. 1 

Not only does rhythm thus organize the work of 
the individual, but it also organizes the individuals 
into a more effective group, inspirits effort and gives 
swing, drive and purpose to otherwise monotonous 
and wearisome work. In this sense it may with 

1 Strayer and Norsworthy, "How to Teach," p. 205. 



220 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

perfect right be called " dynamogenic, ' 9 and may 
be in many ways put to both practical and interest- 
ing nses. In a similar or related way such external 
factors as color, odor, scenery, clothing, novelty, 
friendliness and cordial associations have their stim- 
ulating and practically dynamogenic influences. 

In this chapter we have by no means attempted 
to give a complete picture of the importance of 
psychology for the executive. But from what it 
has been possible to present in so limited a discus- 
sion it should be clear that, not only in the selection 
of workers but in their management as well, the 
types of psychological application and the settings 
of psychological problems are both varied and 
numerous. In the analysis of management into its 
elements the psychological attitude and point of 
view are conspicuous. In the concrete managerial 
duties and in the provision of favorable environ- 
mental conditions psychological knowledge is found 
to be indispensable. The experienced executive can 
narrate a wealth of incidents in which the discern- 
ment of some simple law of feeling, motive, or think- 
ing contained the solution of a difficulty. Finally, 
in the selection of workers, and in the solution of 
numerous problems growing out of the managerial 
analysis, psychological technique and apparatus are 
becoming increasingly useful. 



CHAPTEE XII 

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 

In the preceding chapter we have considered some 
of the ways in which the psychological factors enter 
into the work of organization and management. In 
the case of the worker himself, his methods, atti- 
tudes, modes of attack, distribution of effort, choice 
of tools, routing of operations and arrangement of 
materials, the laws of mental and motor effective- 
ness are no less important. 

Mental Set and Shift.— A concrete illustration of 
the influence of these mental factors is to be found 
in the case of what is known in the psychological 
laboratory as the maintenance of mental set. A 
simple experiment will make clear the meaning of 
this term. Arrange a series of given words for 
which both synonyms and antonyms may be found, 
— words of similar meaning and words of opposite 
meaning. The experiment is as follows: First go 
down the column, calling aloud an acceptable oppo- 
site for each word, letting someone record the time 
required to complete the series. Then go down the 
column again, but this time calling out synonyms 
instead of opposites, and again recording the time 
required. In the third case go down the column 

221 



222 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

again, calling out an opposite for the first word, a 
synonym for the second, an opposite for the third, 
a synonym for the fourth, and so on down the list, 
alternately. Eecord the time as before, and also 
notice whether this time the work seems more or 
less difficult than in the first two times. The results 
may be still clearer if the experiment is repeated 
several times, thus giving each method a fairer 
measurement. 

In the case of columns of numbers the reader may 
perform a similar experiment by first adding 17 
and subtracting 17 alternately, then adding 17 in 
each case, then subtracting 17 in each case. Here 
again the experiment should be performed several 
times and the results averaged, so that greater 
difficulty does not attach to one method simply 
because it was the first one tried. Quite uniformly 
it will be found that the mixed series is felt to be 
more difficult and actually requires more time than 
either of the other two. 

In general it is found that shifting back and forth 
from one mental set, one attitude or task to another 
is a relatively ineffective mode of work. This prin- 
ciple has many applications in the workshop. House 
cleaning has been shown by actual trial to move 
more expeditiously if one first sweeps all rooms, 
then dusts all rooms, then polishes all furniture, 
then arranges all contents, than by the more com- 
monly observed method of sweeping a room, then 
shifting to the task and tools of dusting, then pol- 



PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 223 

ishing, then arranging, and then repeating this se- 
ries of shifts for each room. Dishwashing obviously 
proceeds more efficiently when the collecting task, 
then the scraping task, then the washing task, then 
the drying and then the replacing are each continu- 
ously maintained. Similarly, in constructing even 
such simple objects as window screens, it is more 
effective to do all sawing first, then all planing, then 
all sandpapering, then all joining, then all screen 
cutting, then all stretching and tacking, then all 
finishing and trimming, and finally all painting, than 
it is to make each screen complete, changing from 
set to set, task to task, tool to tool and place to 
place for each case. 

This simple principle of the maintenance of set 
should find application in innumerable types of 
work. It should scarcely be necessary to point out 
that any such principle should be applied, not blindly 
and inflexibly, but always with due regard for the 
circumstances and for other principles which may 
be equally important. Thus, in the case of the win- 
dow screens, it would be a mistake to insist on doing 
first all screen stretching, then all tacking, since 
this would involve a complete rehandling of every 
screen, although the tools employed would be the 
same in both cases. Moreover, such simple facts 
as that monotony and lack of variety in one's occu- 
pation may make for inattention, mind wandering, 
accident and ennui, thus incapacitating the worker, 
cannot be ignored. 



224 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Effective Distribution of Effort.— Such principles 
as that of the effective distribution of work and 
rest, in such way that the worker may escape the 
disastrous results of over fatigue and yet not lose 
the advantages arising from being already "wanned 
up" and in action, find application in any kind of 
work, from studying geography to mowing grass. 
Taylor found that in so simple a task as that of 
carrying chunks of iron from one place to another 
there was a definite law covering the ratio of the 
time the worker should be under load to the time he 
should be at rest. He found by actual experiment 
that a man carrying chunks of iron weighing 92 
pounds should be under load only 42 per cent of 
the day, being without load, either returning or rest- 
ing, for 58 per cent of the time. When workers were 
placed on such a schedule they were found to load 
47 tons each daily, instead of the 12.5 tons which had 
been the average record when the worker observed 
no such principle. The individual's inclinations, 
intuition, traditions and feelings of fatigue were no 
reliable index of the effectiveness of his work 
method, and the new method seemed no more diffi- 
cult nor fatiguing than the old haphazard one. 

In some kinds of work the "load" or amount of 
energy required at each act or moment may be so 
varied and adjusted to the general laws of work, 
fatigue and individual difference that personal 
comfort and effectiveness of effort may both be 
increased. Thus when the optimum load for such 



PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 225 

work as shoveling has been determined, the size 
of the shovel may be systematically adjusted or 
varied with the heaviness of the substance being 
handled, instead of using a traditional shovel and 
varying the amount lifted in a random way or not 
at all. By such methods the work of gangs of shov- 
elers has been increased three or four fold, and 
each man's daily earnings increased, if not propor- 
tionately, at least considerably. 

Organizing the Path of Movement.— Closely re- 
lated to this subject of the effective distribution of 
work and rest is that of the routing of operations. 
The paths followed by the worker in moving from 
one part of the plant to another, from materials or 
storehouse to bench, from bench to tool chest and 
back, from bench to warerooms, etc., may also play 
a large part in his working capacity. No better 
illustration need be given of the importance of a 
systematic organization of the worker's movements 
than Christine Frederick's account 1 of the organiza- 
tion of the worker's path in the case of a kitchen. 
She writes : 

I recall a young bride who recently showed me her new 
kitchen. " Isn't it a beauty?" she exclaimed. It certainly 
had modern appliances of every kind. But her stove was 
in a recess of the kitchen at one end. Her pantry was 
twenty feet away at the opposite end. Every time she wanted 
to use a frying pan she had to walk twenty feet to get it, 
and, after using it, she had to walk twenty feet to put it 

1 Christine Frederick, "The New Housekeeping," p. 46. 



226 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

away. I know blocks and blocks of houses in a city over 
100,000 population which are all built that way. "When I 
see such a kitchen I am reminded of the barker I once 
heard outside of a country circus. "Ladies and gentle- 
men," he was calling, "come in and see the great African 
crocodile. It measures 18 feet from the tip of its nose to 
the tip of its tail, and 18 feet from the tip of its tail to the 
tip of its nose, making in all, ladies and gentlemen, a grand 
total of 36 feet." How many women are "making a grand 
total of thirty-six steps" every time they hang up the egg- 
beater? 

♦ 

She then gives side by side a diagram of a kitchen 
" showing badly arranged equipment, which makes 
confused intersecting chains of steps, in either pre- 
paring or clearing away a meal," and also the same 
kitchen properly routed, so that the steps involved 
in either process are simple and few. 

Time and Motion Study.— The general importance 
of routing or organization of paths leads naturally 
to the intensive study of the more simple movements 
of the worker, — the movements of arms, hands, feet, 
head and trunk. Under the name of ' ' motion study ' ' 
such work has received considerable attention from 
industrial engineers and managers, and represents 
an elaboration and application of work begun years 
ago in the psychological laboratory on such prob- 
lems as reaction time, habit formation, practice, 
acquisition of skill, fatigue, etc. By recording 
accurately the separate movements which comprise 
the worker's activities, discovering useless steps 
and delays, interferences and faulty coordinations, 



PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 227 

a plan of movement is arrived at which is best cal- 
culated to accomplish all the work in the quickest 
possible time and with a minimum of effort. Gil- 
breth and his co-workers have done extensive work 
in this field and have perfected many devices for 
recording even the swiftest, most complicated and 
delicate movements, such as those of the expert type- 
writer, the pianist and surgeon. Various special 
devices have also been constructed whereby the 
movement paths, both inferior and superior, may 
be graphically, stereoscopieally, by motion pictures 
or otherwise demonstrated to the worker and thus 
utilized by him in the perfection of his handicraft. 
Sometimes the changes made are not in the path 
of movement itself but rather in the arrangement 
of the worker's body, his materials, tools or equip- 
ment. Thus in Gilbreth's classical study of brick- 
laying operations, the changes made were mainly in 
the disposition of materials and in the routing of 
the work, but these changes brought up the average 
number of bricks laid per hour from the traditional 
standard of 120 to 350 per man, and reduced the 
number of movements involved in laying a brick 
from 18 to 4. In almost any workshop, factory, 
office or home, simple changes in the height of chairs 
or benches, the elevation of tables, sinks and desks, 
the position of tools, filing cabinets, drain boards, 
sinks, etc., show that this type of study of human 
behavior and the conditions of its effectiveness is 
both interesting and valuable. 



228 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

This type of observation and study may be profit- 
ably undertaken by anyone interested who is at all 
familiar with the psychological methods of measur- 
ing work. One student of applied psychology found 
that a few minutes of such observation enabled her 
to save ten minutes of the half hour usually required 
in making a cake. Another found herself dressing 
in half the traditional time ; another saved several 
hours of time each month by routing and reorganiz- 
ing the processes of bathing and shaving. Two 
students, studying the distribution of movements 
in typewriting on an ordinary machine with a given 
type of keyboard found that, out of 37,356 move- 
ments, 21,301 were struck by the less efficient left 
hand and only 16,055 by the more efficient right 
hand, thus disclosing an ineffective arrangement of 
the letters on this particular keyboard. A slight 
change in the height and slope of the work table 
enabled girls engaged in sorting and filing records 
to increase their output by 50 per cent. In another 
factory a motion study led to the making of several 
small alterations in the operation and arrangement 
of the machinery, with the result that seven girls, 
working eight and one-half hours, were able to ac- 
complish what had previously required thirteen 
girls working ten hours, a reduction from 130 to 
59.5 total hours. The literature of scientific man- 
agement and efficiency engineering is replete with 
such instances. 

Psychological Reaction of the Worker.— Of equal 



PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 229 

importance, though more recent in its development, 
is the question of the psychological effect of such 
methods on the worker. Do these methods tend to 
destroy his spontaneity and individuality and re- 
duce him to an automaton by prescribing for him 
a routine plan of work? Do they decrease his 
initiative, surround him with monotony, and over- 
specialize his activity and training? Or do they 
release his attention for more profitable activity, 
enable him to capitalize and to derive the greatest 
possible advantage from such special aptitudes as 
he may chance to possess, improve his health, in- 
crease his interest and observation, stimulate his 
own analytic and scientific ability, prevent accident 
and strain and promote stability, long tenure and 
years of productivity? In the solution of these 
questions, as well as in the adaptation and develop- 
ment of the industrial methods which raise them to 
consciousness, the applied psychologist finds an in- 
viting and valuable field of research. 

As a final illustration of the various applications 
of psychology in the workshop w£ may instance the 
influence of the worker's mental condition, attitude, 
expectation and purpose on the quality and quan- 
tity of his work. In a previous chapter the influence 
of such factors on learning and on the acquisition 
of skill have been pointed out. In the present con- 
nection may be given a concrete instance of the 
practical importance of these factors in the work- 
shop. In tabulating the census returns, in a very 



2S0 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

elaborate manner, it was necessary to use a new 
machine and a complex series of punching and let- 
tering symbols to correspond to such items as age, 
sex, color, nationality, occupation, education, lan- 
guage, etc. After a very careful preliminary train- 
ing and practice, covering some five weeks, in the 
use of the machinery, studying the schedules, and 
memorizing the symbols, the operators, who had 
begun with the express idea that the work was 
exceedingly difficult, fatiguing and called for excep- 
tional ability and skill, were able to complete, on 
the average, some 500 cards per day. But this 
record seemed to call for such feverish effort that 
protests were made and no further publication of 
records by way of stimulation was allowed. 

After the work was well under way about 200 new 
clerks were put into one room and scattered through the 
force already at work. They had no experience with the 
schedules and knew nothing of the symbols and had never 
seen the machines. They saw those around them working 
easily and rapidly, and in three days several of them had 
done 500, in a week nearly every one, while the general 
average was rising. There was no longer any question of 
nervous strain. 2 

In fact one day before the work was over one 
of these new operators, who had not had the pre- 
paratory five weeks of training in mastering the 

2 Quoted by Jastrow in "Fact and Fable in Psychology," from 
Mrs. May Cole Baker. 



PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 231 

schedules and memorizing the symbols, broke the 
record achievement by completing 2,230 cards. 

It is thus demonstrated that an unskilled clerk, with 
the environment proving the possibility of a task and sug- 
gesting its easy accomplishment, can in three days suc- 
ceed in doing what a skilled clerk, with preliminary ac- 
quaintance of five weeks with the symbol to be used could 
only do after two weeks' practice, and this because the 
latter, doubtless not a whit inferior in ability, had been led 
to regard the task as difficult. 3 

3 Ibid. 



CHAPTEE XIII 

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 

Psychology of the Consumer. — The market exists 
primarily because the consumer exists, and the 
refinements of marketing methods depend chiefly 
on the fact that the consumer must be dealt with 
as a psychological individual, as well as an organic, 
economic or political unit. The commodities of the 
market are there because the consumer has certain 
needs, values, habits or desires which those commod- 
ities may satisfy. The original needs of human 
beings, the requirements of food, shelter, clothing 
and defense are by no means his sole wants. Equally 
urgent are his much more distinctively human 
demands for comfort, cleanliness, recreation, dis- 
play, decoration and society. Still less instinctive 
and in large degree educationally and socially 
acquired are his desires for tools, knowledge, power, 
prestige, insurance, property, sport and art. 

The activities of the manufacturer must either 
be directed solely by the existing needs of the con- 
sumer or else he must, by some art of compulsion 
or education, modify the prevailing wants or stimu- 
late novel demands. Under a competitive system 

232 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 23B 

of supplying the market it is still further necessary 
or expedient to take into account the established 
habits of seeking satisfaction for these needs, to 
adapt the commodity, the container, the price or 
the sales method to these habits, or to redirect and 
educate these consumer habits into specific forms 
and directions. All this involves the considera- 
tion of the consumer from a psychological point of 
view. 

In serious discussions of manufacturing and mar- 
keting problems the psychology of the consumer is 
always in the foreground, and such phrases as "con- 
sumer defenses," "buying habits," "effective ap- 
peal," "the sales attack," etc., form part of the mod- 
ern business man's working vocabulary. In recent 
books on the modern methods of marketing we find 
explicit recognition given to "the consumer's de- 
fenses," partial enumeration and illustration of 
them, and suggestions as to various devices, proce- 
dures and tactics for "breaking down" or evading 
these defenses. Conspicuous among these resist- 
ances are the limitation of spending power by earn- 
ing capacity, the strength of the savings instinct, 
the standard of living, social expectation of expen- 
diture, the habit of paying conventional or particular 
prices for certain commodities, habits of buying par- 
ticular things at particular places, in particular 
amounts or forms, etc. Thus the manufacture and 
sale of automobiles and talking machines encoun- 
ter the limitation of spending power and the gav- 



234 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ings instinct. The marketing of fashionable ap- 
parel, travel, and education encounters standards 
of living that must be catered to or raised. The 
sale of collars, hats, patent medicines, toilet articles 
and household wares that do not fall into a con- 
ventional price category must reckon with a definite 
psychological resistance. An attempt to market 
bread through the stationer or soap 'through the 
laundry would find established buying habits strong- 
ly entrenched. The introduction of safety razors, 
while it promised abundant satisfaction of existing 
needs, is still resisted by the shaving habits of many 
prosperous consumers. Paper dishes, however sani- 
tary, economical and expeditious, do not find ready 
adoption. Mail order methods meet with definite 
and familiar psychological resistance on the part of 
many members of a local community. 

In the same way the more general and extra-com- 
mercial tendencies of human nature go far toward 
determining the form and pattern of various market- 
ing institutions. A neat example of such a tendency 
is that ancient and universal human demand for a 
concrete symbol of any general object or abstract 
service, institution or principle. Political parties 
cannot exist abstractly, — each, must have its name, 
its slogan, its totemistic symbol of beast, bird or 
fish. Colleges must be known by their seals or 
colors, states by their flags or hymns, societies by 
their badges, professions by their sartorial or ton- 
sorial styles, and the principle of Justice, the con- 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 235 

dition of Peace, the concept of Power, must each 
have its concrete sign and symbol. In much the 
same way the early artisans and shopkeepers soon 
learned the advantages of trade symbols, — barbers' 
poles, butchers' horns, golden balls, colored bottles, 
wooden Indians, etc. 

For similar reasons the modern manufacturer, 
jobber and dealer find that complicated psycholog- 
ical and social demands require that crackers, eggs, 
tea, clothespins, chewing gum, automobiles, pianos, 
furniture, insurance companies and international en- 
terprises must each and all be christened, marked 
with a recognizable symbol, encased in a distinctive 
package, or indicated by special devices in the form 
of brand, color, marking, emblem or stationery. 
Says Graham "Wallas : 

The actual tea leaves in the world are as varied and un- 
stable as the actual political opinions of mankind. Every 
leaf in every tea garden is different from every other leaf, 
and a week of damp weather may change the whole stock 
in any warehouse. "What therefore should the advertiser 
do to create a commercial "entity," a "tea" which men 
can think and feel about? — Nowadays — he would choose 
some term, say "Paramatta Tea," which would produce 
in most men a vague suggestion of the tropical East, com- 
bined with the subconscious memory of a geography lesson 
on Australia. He would then proceed to create in connec- 
tion with the word an automatic picture-image having pre- 
vious emotional associations of its own. By the time that 
a hundred thousand pounds had been cleverly spent, no 
one in England would be able to see the word "Paramatta" 
on a parcel without a vague impulse to buy, founded on a 



236 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

day-dream recollection of his grandmother, or of the Brit- 
ish fleet, or of a pretty young English matron, or any other 
subject that the advertiser had chosen for its association 
with the emotions of trust and affection. 1 

In recent years the manufacturer has found the 
methods of the psychological laboratory of distinct 
service in ascertaining beforehand the relative ef- 
fectiveness, impressiveness, interest and attention 
value of various packages, slogans, emblems, and 
trade-marks. In modern scientific business the selec- 
tion of any such marketing aid takes place only 
after preliminary measurements of these thoroughly 
psychological properties and attributes. Thus in a 
recent case the name, the packages and the slogan 
of a new commodity were all selected by psycholog- 
ical measurement, even to such minute details as 
typography, color, shape, and position of details. 
Only when all these factors had been determined by 
actual experiments on prospective consumers was 
the commodity placed on the market. 

The multiplication of these symbolic devices in- 
evitably leads to frequent resemblance and confu- 
sion among them, and then arise questions of in- 
fringement which again involve problems which are 
psychological in their nature. 

An interesting illustration of this field of applied 
psychology is to be found in the investigations re- 

1 Graham Wallas, "Human Nature in Politics." 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 237 

ported by Paynter. 2 Through a carefully planned 
technique, this investigator arranged situations 
in which observers were required to indicate 
whether or not the members of a series of trade- 
names, presented one at a time, were identical with 
names which had been seen on a previous occasion. 
In some cases the names were really identical while 
in other cases similar names, imitations or infringe- 
ments, were substituted for the originals. The de- 
gree of confusion which the names occasioned was 
measured in terms of the number of cases in which 
the substitutes were mistaken for the originals. 
Some of the pairs represented cases on which legal 
decisions had already been passed, ranking them 
either as infringements or as non-infringements. 
The direction of the legal decisions may thus be com- 
pared with the actual tendency to confusion shown 
under the experimental conditions. The following 
table gives some of the pairs of trade-names, the 
per cent of confusion in each case, and the direction 
of the legal decision. 

Per Cent Legal 

Original Imitation Confusion Decision 



Sozodont 


Kalodont 


28 


Non-infringement 


Nox-all 


Non-X-Ell 


28 


Infringement 


Club 


Chancellor Club 


35 


Infringement 


Bestyette 


Veribest 


35 


Non-infringement 



2 A Psychological Study of Confusion Between Word Trade- 
Marks, Richard H. Paynter, in Bulletin of United States Trade- 
Mark Association, May, 1915. 



288 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Per Cent Legal 

Original Imitation Confusion Decision 

Mother's Grand-Ma's 38 Non-infringement 

Au-to-do Autola 40 Infringement 

Peptenzyme Pinozyme 43 Non-infringement 

Green River Green Eibbon 50 Infringement 

Ceresota Cressota 63 Infringement 

Eef erring to these and similar results Paynter 3 
remarks : 

If the legal decisions were all accurate, the non-infringe- 
ments would show lower degrees of confusion than the in- 
fringements. That the decisions are not all accurate may 
be seen from the overlapping of the scores of the infringe- 
ments and non-infringements. According to the per cent 
of confusion only two infringements are more confusing 
than the most confusing of the non-infringements. — The 
fact that the difference of the averages of the infringe- 
ments and non-infringements is so small compared to the 
great differences within the groups of infringements and 
non-infringements shows the results of judicial decisions 
in this field to be quite unreliable. — It would manifestly 
be a great saving in time, money and energy to determine 
the degree of likelihood of confusion between word trade- 
marks by psychological experiment. The writer is devising 
a scale of similarity on which will appear actual word 
trade-marks and imitations thereof ranging from those 
showing very little confusion to those which show absolute 
confusion. Each trade-mark will have two ratings, one 
indicating the percentage of confusion and the other the 
grade of the marks with respect to relative confusion. If 

3 Those interested in further developments of this type of work 
should consult Paynter's monograph, published in the Archives 
of Psychology, entitled, "A Psychological Study of Trade-Mark 
Infringements." 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 239 

a standard degree of confusion constituting infringement 
could be agreed upon, the average position which a number 
of competent individuals independently assigned to the 
mark and the imitation involved in a specific case would 
determine whether the imitation was an infringement or a 
non-infringement, according to whether it fell above or be- 
low the degree of confusion agreed upon as the standard. 

In all the foregoing discussion the employment of 
psychological attitude, knowledge and technique has 
throughout been attributed to the manufacturer or 
the distributer in his attack upon the consumer. The 
consumer himself has shown little demand for the 
development of a science of resistance to the ad- 
vances of the salesman and advertiser, although it 
has often been suggested that he would profit by such 
instruction. Perhaps it would be sufficient if the 
consumer would take a psychological attitude toward 
what is happening to him, taking stock on the one 
hand of his various defenses, comprehending the 
nature of the weapons of the market place, and 
especially familiarizing himself wdth that extraor- 
dinary influence which the advertising writer knows 
as "the power of print. " "It is written" was once 
the final seal of truth and the guide to conscience 
and conduct. To have "seen it in a book" or "read 
it in the paper," or to have absorbed it from a 
thousand bill boards, posters, car cards and circulars 
is still to the average consumer the final test of 
expedience and determiner of desire and value. 

The Psychology of Advertising 1 ,— Next to educa- 



240 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

tion, the field of advertising has received more wide- 
spread and detailed attention from the applied psy- 
chologist than has any other practical enterprise. 
As early as 1750, Addison and Johnson wrote essays 
in The Tatter, The Idler and The Spectator, point- 
ing out the psychological interest of the advertise- 
ments then appearing in the public prints. It was 
pointed out that the advertisement not only relied 
on certain mental principles but also afforded 
glimpses of human nature which the social philoso- 
pher could not afford to ignore. A recent book on 
"The Advertisements of the Spectator' 9 discusses 
in detail the social and historical value of such docu- 
ments as advertisements, as well as their general 
human interest. 

Certain it is that he who traces the history of 
advertising from its most primitive forms in the 
courtship of animals, the display of vendable prow- 
ess and skill in joust and tournament, the develop- 
ment of ceremony, heraldry, and dress, to the subtle 
forms of personal publicity adopted by the modern 
statesman, clergyman, or debutante, it seems to con- 
stitute no mean proportion of the activities of indi- 
vidual, family and social life. Or on its more com- 
mercial side, as one traces the methods and technique 
of marketing from the display of wares on a blanket ' 
by the highway, the formation of fairs and bazaars, 
the development and organization of public and 
private criers, the introduction of trade and profes- 
sional symbols, through the invention, of printing, 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 241 

the circulation of placards and posters, the construc- 
tion of "news books" and " intelligencers/ ' the rise 
of the periodic magazine and newspaper, to the 
elaborate systems, devices and implements of mod- 
ern advertising, one comes to feel that the history 
of advertising would in itself be a valuable com- 
pendium of the economic, social, educational and 
scientific progress of mankind. Each of these steps 
arose on the basis of a definite psychological and 
social background, and each in turn exerted a defi- 
nite psychological and social influence. 

But the explicit introduction of psychological 
technique into the now complex science of advertis- 
ing belongs to very recent years. In 1900 Harlow 
Gale published a series of brief articles, reporting 
the results of laboratory experiments on the legi- 
bility, attention value and interest of printed adver- 
tisements. He even went so far as to break up the 
complete advertisement and use its elements in the 
laboratory in the place of the lights, sounds, rec- 
tangles, weights and other paraphernalia with which 
the psychologist had heretofore experimented. Thus 
he suggested the possibility of measuring the impor- 
tance and value for practical purposes of such fac- 
tors as illustration (relevant and irrelevant), text, 
size of type, content of the argument, etc. 

In 1903 Scott published under the title "The 
Theory of Advertising" a very suggestive exposi- 
tion of the application in the art of advertising, of 
the laws of memory, association, feeling, choice, etc. 



242 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

He also began the use of questionnaire methods in 
the investigation of advertising problems ; conducted 
various experimental inquiries into such factors as 
the size of advertisements, the reading habits of the 
public, etc.; and in 1908 issued a second book on 
1 i The Psychology of Advertising, ' 9 now familiar to 
every student of the subject. 

In 1909 Hollingworth began a series of investiga- 
tions in cooperation with the Advertising Men's 
League of New York, and after several years of 
such round-table labor in the analysis, experimental 
measurement and psychological interpretation of 
the media, varieties, tasks, technique and principles 
of advertising, the results were embodied in his book 
on "Advertising and Selling." 

Since this time similar and supplementary studies 
and volumes have been presented by Strong, Starch, 
Breitwieser, Brown, Adams and others. Courses of 
instruction, research fellowships, lectures and labo- 
ratory work on the psychology of advertising have 
been introduced into a score of schools, colleges and 
universities, and dissertations for the highest aca- 
demic degrees have been presented in this field. Along 
with the artist, writer, printer, industrial investi- 
gator, statistician and technical advertising expert, 
the psychologist may be found working in the mod - 
ern advertising agency or in the publicity and promo- 
tion department of large manufacturing concerns. 

To present in any detail the numerous ways in 
which the attitude, content or technique of psychol- 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 243 

ogy may be applied in the field of advertising would 
take us far beyond the limits of this chapter. It 
must suffice to indicate by an outline arrangement 
the leading features of these applications as they 
are now to be found. The inquiring reader may be 
referred to the many available manuals for more 
detailed account of these interesting points of con- 
tact between psychology and the market. 

Outline Suggesting the Varied Applications of Psy- 
chology in Advertising 

I.— APPLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTITUDE 

1. — In analysis of tasks and psychological basis of sales 

appeal. 
2. — Analysis of types and varieties of sales appeal. 
3. — Analysis of special devices used in each task and 

type. 
4. — Analysis of returns and results of campaigns. 

II.— APPLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTENT 

1. — To appropriate selection of media and types of ap- 
peal. 
2. — Adjustment of appeal to audience, purpose, com- 

modity. 
3. — Laws of attention, perception, interest, memory, 

association, feeling, emotion, suggestion, choice, 

action, in framing the appeal. 
4. — Principles of feeling and laws of esthetics, in the 

arrangement, design, display, ornament and 

lay-out. 
5. — Laws of reading and perception, for the printer, 

typographer and illustrator. 



244 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

III.— APPLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUE 

1. — Recognition method, tachistoscope, etc., in the 
measurement of attention value, legibility, etc, 

2. — Methods of impression, in determining the effec- 
tiveness of colors, design, arrangement of ad- 
vertisement, the atmosphere of packages, names, 
etc. 

3. — Method of relative position, in measurement of the 
persuasiveness of appeals, reader reactions to 
copy, consumer preferences for slogans, names, 
packages, illustrations, commodities, etc. 

4. — Statistical technique of mental and social measure- 
ment in field investigation, analysis of circula- 
tions, comparison of media, and in the deriva- 
tion of scales and tables of measurement. 

5. — Genetic method in studying the evolution of de- 
vices, historical changes and tendencies. 

* * 

The Psychology of Salesmanship.— The materials 
of advertising lend themselves ^i^h. special readiness 
to the analysis and experimental methods of the 
laboratory. Printed appeals may be collected, pre- 
sented, handled, dissected, preserved and studied 
over long periods of time and under constant or 
known conditions. But the oral appeal of the per- 
sonal salesman offers problems of far greater com- 
plexity. From its very nature the sales talk repre- 
sents a continuous process of which the printed ad- 
vertisement is but a cross section. Once the adver- 
tisement is presented its influence is determined once 
for all, and it is either relatively successful or rela- 
tively futile. But the oral salesman, working at 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 245 

close range and face to face with his customer, may 
choose his appeal, vary it, repeat it or supplement 
it according to the particular idiosyncrasy of the 
customer and according to the time and circum- 
stance of the interview. 

The oral sales talk is to the printed advertisement 
what the motion picture film is to the simple lantern 
slide, the drama to the tableau, or the kaleidoscope 
to the frozen frost pattern. The sales talk is a 
whole advertising campaign condensed into a few 
moments and adjusted and adapted to the present 
responses of the audience. It is not restricted to 
its verbal dress, but is reenforced, emphasized, or 
otherwise modified by the personality of the sales- 
man, his appearance, voice, dress, bearing, expres- 
sion, intonation and gesture. Once it is finished it 
may never occur again in precisely the same form 
or under precisely tjie same conditions. 

The advertisement on the other hand in addition 
to the frailties already indicated, must in the nature 
of its work be addressed not to a single individual 
nor in general even to individuals of the same type 
and interest under circumstances which are even 
momentarily common. It must address itself with- 
in certain limits to the average individual or stand- 
ard person of a group, an individual who, as thus 
defined, has no concrete existence. 

For these and other reasons, while much refer- 
ence has been made to the psychology of salesman- 
ship, there cannot be said to exist any body of facts, 



246 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

principles or methods in any way comparable to the 
established laws, results, and technique of the psy- 
chology of advertising. There is, to be sure, reason 
to believe that the principles of successful salesman- 
ship are no different from those underlying the suc- 
cessful advertisement, sales letter, or window dis- 
play. But their operation in any given instance is 
obviously much more obscure and complex. 

Consequently the psychology of salesmanship, 
when it does not degenerate into a collection of 
bromidic maxims or a brisk and stimulating bit of 
"ginger talk," consists for the most part of the 
general facts of human nature, and is relatively 
restricted therefore to what we have called the 
"content" of psychology as distinguished from its 
attitude and technique. 

The salesman, to be sure, no longer looks upon 
the act of selling as a single event. He is accus- 
tomed in his own preparation, in sales instruction, 
and to greater or less degree in actual performance, 
to analyze the process into various elements, steps 
or stages, such as preparation, approach, presenta- 
tion, argument, closing the deal, etc. And in so far 
as psychological measurement is able to specify the 
relative strength or persuasiveness of various sales 
points or bases of appeal, he may with profit utilize 
the results of such methods. For the most part, 
however, as matters now stand, the salesman can 
best profit from psychology by familiarizing himself 
in an expert way with the original and acquired 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 247 

tendencies of human beings, the mechanisms of con- 
duct, thought and feeling, the range of individual 
differences in interest, values, motive and tempera- 
ment, the general lore and doctrine of expression, 
emotion, belief and reflection, and especially with 
the laws of cogent reasoning, the fallacies of argu- 
ment, and the instinctive promptings underlying 
such factors as suggestion, resistance, conflict and 
decision. 

An interesting venture in the applied psychology 
of our own day looks forward to the possibility of 
diagnosing, by the various means of mental meas- 
urement, the personal characteristics which combine 
to characterize the successful salesman. It further 
contemplates the possibility of determining to what 
degree such particular qualities or aptitudes, if such 
there be, are original and temperamental traits, and 
to what degree they may be acquired by adequate 
effort and practice or communicated by competent 
instruction. In this type of research into the voca- 
tional psychology of salesmanship may perhaps be 
found in time the field of application of psychological 
analysis and experimental method, as distinguished 
from the more cultural application of psychological 
knowledge. 



CHAPTER XIV 

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 

The work of the law arises out of the attempt to 
control conduct and this task at once involves the 
whole range of such topics as incentive, impulse, 
choice, action, value, thought and feeling, the whole 
arc of appeal and response, the intensive study of 
which constitutes the problem of psychology. More- 
over, in its evidential, administrative and judicial 
aspects, the law implies the acquisition, evaluation 
and interpretation of the testimony of witnesses and 
the assignment of more or less specific responsibility 
for acts or for failures to act. All of these matters 
again are, from a point of view other than that of 
control, subject matter of psychological study. It 
is apparent then that the general importance of 
psychology in legal, criminal and penological affairs 
cannot be presented in a comprehensive way in a 
single chapter. It will be possible only to point out 
and illustrate four chief directions in which psychol- 
ogy has at least endeavored to be of definite service 
to the formulators and administrators of the law. 

248 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 249 

These four directions may be conveniently desig- 
nated, — The Accumulation of Evidence, The Evalu- 
ation of Testimony, The Determination of Besponsi- 
bility and The Adaptation of Corrective Measures. 
The Accumulation of Evidence.— Two illustrations 
will indicate the nature of the efforts made in this 
direction. The first is the "free association 
method," that form of psycho-analysis which is 
employed in the so-called "Tatbestandsdiagnostik" 
experiments. This experiment has come to be a 
favorite form of demonstration in many labora- 
tories, and in one of its forms is usually conducted 
in the following way. Three members of the class 
are sent out of the room in charge of an assistant, 
who selects one of the three to play the role of 
"criminal" in the test which is to follow. This 
person is put through some experience in which the 
two remaining students do not participate, — is 
shown a picture, read a story, instructed to perform 
some more or less exciting act, etc. The three stu- 
dents are then brought into the class room one at 
a time and required to give free association re- 
sponses, as quickly as possible, to a selected list of 
stimulus words. This list contains some words 
which are called ' ' critical. ' ' They are words closely 
related to the experience through which one of the 
three students has just passed. The association re- 
sponses are recorded and in each case the time is 
measured which has elapsed between the response 
and the presentation of the stimulus word. The 



250 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

series is then gone through again, in reverse order, 
and the original reactions called for. In this man- 
ner all three of the students are examined and the 
instructor or the class judges, on the basis of the 
test results, which of the three "suspects" is 
"guilty," — which one possesses the special knowl- 
edge or experiences the special emotions produced 
by this knowledge. 

The indications that the "guilty" individual will 
be likely to give in such an examination are : 

1. — Significant reactions to critical words. 

2. — Eetarded reactions to critical words or to in- 
different words following closely upon them. 

3. — Changed reactions to critical words when the 
reverse series is given. 

4. — Undue number of stereotyped or reverberat- 
ing reactions. 

"When skillfully conducted the experiment in this 
form seldom fails. The procedure has been sug- 
gested as a means of indirectly securing evidence 
which the direct interrogatory, cross examination, 
or "third degree" might fail to reveal, and the ap- 
plication of the method in police and court procedure 
has been enthusiastically advocated by some psy- 
chologists. The writer has seen the method used 
in the case of a suspected thief, whose guilt was 
not only satisfactorily demonstrated but whose 
actions subsequent to the theft were also partially 
disclosed. Confronted with the evidence of the ex- 
perimental results, the man confessed, and told a 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 251 

story of the crime which confirmed the indications 
of the experiment. Jung, Miinsterberg, Peterson, 
Scripture, Crane and others have used the method 
with varying degrees of success. Its practical merits 
and ultimate possibilities are still open to discussion. 
It should, however, be noted that in the form here 
described the problem is only that of determining 
which of a number of individuals is guilty, whereas 
the practical problem, that of determining the guilt 
or innocence of a given individual is a much more 
difficult matter. 

A second method of securing evidence may be 
briefly illustrated in connection with such an experi- 
ment as that just described. Psycho-analysis pro- 
ceeds on the assumption that emotionally toned 
experiences in one way or another determine the 
flow of ideas. This second method, the method of 
expression, as it is called in psychology, proceeds on 
the assumption that emotions are attended by char- 
acteristic motor reactions, among which are included 
gross external muscular innervations, changes in 
respiration and heart beat, vascular adaptations and 
variations in the secretion of various glands, such 
as the salivary or the sweat glands. By the use 
of appropriate recording apparatus, sphygmo- 
graphs, pneumographs, plethysmographs, galvano- 
meters, etc., the organic changes which occur during 
such an examination as that of the preceding experi- 
ment may be registered, and these may offer signifi- 
cant suggestions. Thus Benussi reports that the 



252 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

truth or falsity of an oral statement can be detected 
by noting the ratio of length of inhalation to length 
of exhalation before and after the statement. In 
the case of what has come to be known as the psycho- 
galvanic reflex, changes in the secretion of the sweat 
glands incident to the arousal of an emotion may be 
indirectly observed through the use of the galvan- 
ometer. But up to the present time the method of 
expression has been able only to indicate that some 
emotion or excitement is present. The character of 
the emotion, its basis and deep-seated significance, 
cannot be inferred from the records. As for both 
these methods of securing indirect evidence, whether 
or not they may constitute a genuine contribution to 
legal and criminal procedure remains for their fu- 
ture elaboration and application to determine. 

The Evaluation of Testimony.— Innumerable prob- 
lems arise under this heading, chiefly because the 
testimony of witnesses in the courts is usually based 
on "incidental memory," the bystander at an event 
having observed it not with the intention of accu- 
rately reporting the details, but more often with 
attention fixed mainly on the dramatic aspects of 
the episode. Even when one sets out with the delib- 
erate intention of observing, remembering and re- 
porting what takes place before him, innumerable 
sources of error disqualify much of the testimony. 
When the observation is incidental these sources of 
error are multiplied beyond any possibility of sys- 
tematic description. Let the reader at this moment 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 253 

write down, without present observation, the number 
of buttons on his coat, the character of the weather 
one week ago today, the number of windows in a 
particular class room, the contents and arrangement 
of a certain room visited yesterday, the number and 
color of the books on some familiar shelf, the way 
in which the sixth hour is indicated on the dial of 
his watch, the color of the eyes or of the cravat of 
the last person with whom he talked, or the size, 
shape and number of the columns before some 
public building. He will at once realize that the 
testimony of bystanders with respect to any detail 
except the major topic of attention is indeed un- 
reliable. 

The ancients were sufficiently interested in this 
matter to enumerate various illusions of perception 
to which observers are liable. Especially during the 
past 100 years there have appeared from the hands 
of jurists, lawyers, and psychologists a great variety 
of treatises, discussions and reports bearing on what 
Bentham in 1800 called "the psychological causes of 
correctness and completeness in testimony. ' ' In fact 
the nature of perception, its tendencies, determi- 
nants, characteristics, accuracy and individuality 
bulks large in every textbook of psychology and in 
every consideration of "judicial evidence." The 
newspaper account of almost any trial in which sin- 
cere witnesses independently report their version 
of an event will disclose in a most instructive way 
the importance to judge, lawyer and jury of a knowl- 



254 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

edge of the psychology of attention, perception, 
memory, imagination, suggestion and belief. 

In recent years numerous investigations, initially 
suggested by the work of Cattell, Binet, Stern and 
others, have endeavored to go beyond the general 
exposition of the psychological tendencies involved, 
and to secure precise measurement of them. Setting 
out from the well known fact that observation, 
memory and report are all liable to error, — error 
on the part of the observer, error in the processes 
of recollection and memory, difficulties in the process 
of communication, and errors of interpretation on 
the part of the listener, they have attempted to de- 
termine by exact experimental methods the nature, 
degree and causes of these errors and their depend- 
ence on such factors as individual difference, age, 
sex, practice, intelligence, time interval, mode of re- 
port, degree of suggestion, suggestive question, etc. 

Thus it has long been recognized that the way in 
which a question is asked has an important influence 
on the actual correctness of the answers made to it. 
By various details of its construction the question 
may convey implications, suggest replies, or elimi- 
nate alternatives. In legal procedure the " leading 
question" has long been regarded as a possible 
source of fallacious testimony, but not until recently 
has there been an attempt to clearly discriminate 
the various types and degrees of leading question 
from each other. Recently, in France, Germany 
and England, experiments have been made in order 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 



255 



to measure the reliability of answers as conditioned 
by the form of question. 

Muscio's investigation may be referred to by way 
of illustration. Using moving pictures as material 
for observation, he asked questions, all of them of a 
leading character, and tried to measure the influence 
of different question forms. He used eight different 
question forms, as given in the following table. 
Careful examination of the questions as here given 
will disclose their varying degrees of suggestive- 
ness. The figures indicating the type of answer 
indicate the per cent of correct, wrong, and uncertain 
replies, when the results of several experiments, in 
which all the questions in the table related to actual 
occurrences, were combined. 



Form of Question 

a — Did you see a 

b — Did you see the — 
c — Didn't you see a — 
d — Didn 't you see the 

e — Was there a 

f — Wasn't there a 






g — Was the (K) m or n — ? 
H— Was the (K) m ? 



Times 
Asked 


Right 


Wrong 


171 


12 


2 


95 


31 


7 


102 


23 


3 


81 


16 


1 


173 


32 


25 


167 


38 


28 


137 


36 


28 


136 


23 


44 



Uncer- 
tain 

si - " 

62 
74 
83 
43 
34 
36 
33 



The results were found to vary with a number of 
circumstances which cannot be considered here. In 
general, however, the following conclusions were 



256 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

suggested. By rising the definite article (the) in- 
stead of the indefinite (a) the suggestiveness, cau- 
tion and reliability were all decreased. Introducing 
the negative (not) into the question decreased cau- 
tion and reliability and increased suggestiveness. 
By asking whether certain things were present or 
occurred, rather than whether they were seen or 
heard, suggestiveness, caution and reliability were 
all decreased. By asking concerning the presence 
or occurrence and also including the negative, sug- 
gestiveness and caution were decreased. Including 
both the definite article and the negative gave more 
complicated results. The so-called "implicative" 
question, "Was the (K) m?" was found to be "lower 
than all the other question forms investigated, for 
suggestiveness, caution, and reliability." The "in- 
complete disjunctive" form, "Was the (K) m or n?" 
was found to possess "a relatively high suggestive- 
ness, a relatively low caution, and a relatively low re- 
liability. ' ' In general and with certain qualifications 
the investigator concluded that the most reliable 
form of question was that which related to the actual 
seeing or hearing of an item, using neither the 
negative nor the definite article. 1 

As representative of another type of investigation 
in this field the experiments of Breukink 2 will serve. 

1 Bernard Muscio, "The Influence of the Form of a Question," 
British Journal of Psychology, Sept., 1916. 

2 "Ueber die Erziebarkeit der Aussage," Zeitschrift filr Ange- 
wandte Psychologie, Band III, Heft. 1 and 2, June, 1909, 32-88, 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 257 

He was especially interested in the influence of prac- 
tice on the fidelity of testimony. He used three dif- 
ferent pictures on occasions a week apart, with the 
same group of observers. The reports were always 
written, the first narrative being supplemented by a 
series of questions. He found that if the individ- 
ual's report was divided into sections, the earlier 
parts were more reliable than the later parts, show- 
ing that the items first coming to mind were more 
likely to be correctly reported. Eeliability also in- 
creased with practice, the third picture being more 
reliably reported than the second, and the second 
than the first. This increase was especially pro- 
nounced in the interrogatory and in the ability to 
resist suggestive questions. Practice also increased 
the reliability of oath. He found that his educated 
subjects mentioned two or three times as many 
items as the uneducated, and the practice effects 
were more conspicuous with the educated group than 
with the uneducated. The uneducated would take 
oath to three times as many answers to suggestive 
questions as would the educated. No consistent sex 
differences were found in fidelity of report, except 
that the women were found to be more reliable than 
the men in their testimony concerning colors. 

Special journals have been founded in which such 
reports may be recorded, and the accumulated litera- 
ture in this field is so considerable that no brief sum- 
mary can do justice to its range and practical sug- 



258 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

gestiveness. 3 The chief problems for the immediate 
future lie in the correlation of these experimental 
results with the necessities of practical life and in 
the suitable adaptation of the methods and of the 
various coefficients of measurement to the require- 
ments and purposes of court procedure. 

Determination of Responsibility.— This third topic 
may be very briefly presented. That type of psy- 
chology which is interested in criminal natures, per- 
versions, exaggerated instincts, insanities, the rela- 
tion between original nature and environment in the 
production of criminal tendencies, the curve of dis- 
tribution of mental and moral traits, the problems 
of the inheritance of nervous dispositions, eugenics, 
the detection and treatment of feeble-mindedness, 
the behavior of mobs, the sources and demands of 
social control, and a variety of kindred topics, is 
coming to have more and more importance in mod- 
ern life, and must work hand in hand with legal and 
criminal institutions and investigators. It is at 
present impossible to say in which direction the 
contribution will be greater. 

No better example can be cited of the usefulness 
of psychology in the determination of responsibility 
than the work of the clinical psychologists with cases 
brought to the Juvenile Courts. In one instance 
100 cases, sufficiently serious to warrant detention, 

3 Interested readers will find a summary of the experimental 
methods and results in the chapter on "Fidelity of Report," in 
Whipple's "Manual of Mental and Physical Tests," Vol. IL 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 



259 



were examined by means of standard scales for the 
measurement of intellectual age. The misdemeanors 
had been various, — such as stealing, immorality, in- 
corrigibility, etc. The ninety-seventh child tested 
was found to be normal, all the rest of the hun- 
dred being shown to be mentally defective. Only 
thirty-four were less than four years backward, and 
this is suggested as the extreme limit for possible 
responsibility and normality. Sixty-six cases were 
feeble-minded, from four to eight years backward. 
The average chronological age of the group of one 
hundred was 13.8 years; the average mental age, 
according to the tests, was 9.2 years. 

In another case fifty-six inmates of a girls' re- 
formatory were similarly tested. The ages ranged 
from 14 to 20, averaging 18.5. According to the 
tests for intellectual age, they measured as follows : 



Number 


Intellectual Age 


Chronological Age 


1 


8 


An average of 


12 


9 


18.5 years. 


14 


10 




14 


11 




11 


12 




4 


13 





Goddard, the investigator reporting these results, 
remarks in discussing their significance : 

As the tests for 13 years have been demonstrated to be 
much more difficult than that age would indicate, we ma^ 



260 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

say that four out of the fifty-six are not feeble-minded, as 
we usually define feeble-mindedness. The rest are clearly 
mental defectives. 

The importance of this type of investigation for 
the practical determination of responsibility under 
the law is at once obvious. The results, the develop- 
ment and perfection of the tests, and the increased 
possibility of their application by trained psycholo- 
gists should be of great interest to the legislator and 
magistrate as well as to society at large. Eespon- 
sibility is a mental function, not a physical one, and 
its determination a psychological, not a medical task. 
So important is the psychological status and condi- 
tion, the mental health or disease of the individual 
accused or convicted of a criminal act, that no just 
verdict of his degree of responsibility, no intelligent 
recommendation for his immediate care, and no 
socially motivated prescription for his ultimate 
treatment or disposal can be made except on the 
basis of a thorough and scientifically conceived men- 
tal examination. So widely has this recognition now 
become established that no criminal or police court, 
no department of justice, charities or correction, no 
modern reformatory, prison or similar institution 
for the handling of human derelicts or malefactors 
is now considered adequately equipped or manned 
unless a psychological laboratory is part of its or- 
ganization and a clinical psychologist a member of 
its staff, or unless a psychological clinic on some 
other foundation is readily accessible. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 261 

Here as in so many other places, it may be pointed 
out that the chief actual contribution on the part 
of psychology is methodological in character. It 
consists principally in the development, standard- 
ization and application of methods of measuring 
mental traits and capacities. 

The Adaptation of Corrective Measures.— The 
foregoing problem of the determination of respon- 
sibility is closely related to the final one in this field, 
— that of the adaptation of corrective measures. In 
so far as the criminal is found to be intellectually 
deficient, the corrective or remedial or protective 
social measures must be adapted to the degree of his 
defect. Capital punishment, torture, prolonged soli- 
tary confinement, hard labor, moral suasion and edu- 
cational efforts will none of them avail to change the 
mental status and the irresponsibility of the defec- 
tive. Nor can they render more moral the quality 
of his acts, except in so far as they serve to remove 
him from social situations, or by segregation or 
sterilization, to prevent the propagation of his kind. 
The sooner this is recognized the more quickly will 
the medieval attitude disappear from our penal 
administration. 

In so far as the malefactor is mentally sick, nerv- 
ously degenerate or psychologically maladjusted to 
the conditions of social life, the individualization of 
corrective measures must keep pace with the indi- 
vidualization of pedagogy and of industry and man- 
agement. In so far as the criminal act issues not 



262 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

from intellectual defect, instability or abnormality 
and the criminal represents one whose instinctive 
propensities, moral restraints and impulses and 
social reactions are more or less independently 
vicious or refractory, his treatment also involves 
problems of a psychological character, except in so 
far as it represents merely the reaction of revenge 
or follows the simple ameliorative policy of elimi- 
nation. 

What are the possibilities of modifying human 
nature by education, example, or other superinduced 
processes? What is the relative efficacy of reward 
and punishment, the relative strength of the various 
instinctive tendencies and of the various proposed 
deterrents of crime? Which is the strongest de- 
terrent to criminal conduct on the part of the intel- 
lectually normal, — the threat of punishment of great 
severity or magnitude, under conditions of com- 
plaint and prosecution which yield a very small 
percentage of detections and convictions ; or, on the 
other hand, the prospect of punishment, relatively 
small in magnitude or severity, but under conditions 
of complaint and prosecution which make detection 
and conviction extremely probable? Which is the 
more effective deterrent, a seldom inflicted penalty 
of life imprisonment or the inevitability of a day in 
jail? All these questions may be legitimately pro- 
pounded to psychology, and whatever answer psy- 
chology may be able to offer, either now or in the 
future, will constitute genuine contribution. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 263 

The following experiment will suggest some of 
the ways in which a psychological study of questions 
of this type may be approached. The experiment 
itself is but a tentative one, and the results, even 
for the circumstances indicated, are of a very pre- 
liminary character. They suggest, however, the 
possibility of submitting to experimental inquiry a 
variety of related problems which are usually 
approached only through vague interpretation of 
ambiguous historical results or through biased opin- 
ions based ou incidental and uncontrolled individual 
experience, 

Insteuctions 

Imagine yourself to be on the point of committing 
some act which is socially and legally regarded as 
a crime, but which you are determined to perform 
because of the intense personal satisfaction it will 
bring you. The only deterrents are the chance of 
detection and conviction, the magnitude of punish- 
ment, and the social stigma incurred. 

Assume that the penalty in all the different states 
is a period of imprisonment, which is, however, con- 
siderably different in amount in the different states, 
and that some states are more or less lax in their 
prosecution of the given offense, while others are 
exceedingly stringent in their methods of detection 
and conviction. 

Suppose that the nature of the crime permits its 



264 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

commission in any one of these several states, with 
equal ease and facility so far as yon are concerned. 
Which of these states would you choose first as the 
place in which you would commit the crime ? If you 
could not select this state, for unavoidable reason, 
which would be your next choice? Place the ten 
states in an order of merit on this basis, — placing 
first the one you would select first, second the one 
you would next choose, and so on, until the state 
in which you would be least likely to commit the 
crime is at the bottom of the list. 

Kansas. — -Imprisonment for life. Almost absolute 
certainty of escape. Only 10 cases out of every 1,000 
are detected and convicted. 

Idaho. — 16 years imprisonment. Chances enor- 
mously in favor of escape. Only 30 cases out of every 
1,000 are detected and convicted. 

Montana. — 8 years imprisonment. Chances of 
escape very high. Only 60 cases out of every 1,000 
are detected and convicted. 

Wyoming. — 4 years imprisonment. Abundant 
chances of escape. Only 120 out of 1,000 cases are 
detected and convicted. 

Arizona, — 2 years imprisonment. Considerable 
chance of escape. Only 250 out of every 1,000 cases 
are detected and convicted. 

Utah. — 1 year imprisonment. Chances of escape 
and punishment are even. 500 out of every 1,000 
cases are detected and convicted. 

Colorado. — 6 months imprisonment. Fair possi- 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 265 

bilities of escape. 660 out of every 1,000 cases are 
detected and convicted. 

Oregon. — 3 months imprisonment. Slight possi- 
bility of escape. 750 out of every 1,000 cases are 
detected and convicted. 

Nevada, — 1 month imprisonment. Bare possi- 
bility of escape. 900 out of every 1,000 cases are 
detected and convicted. 

Arkansas. — 10 days imprisonment. Absolute cer- 
tainty of punishment. Not a single case escapes 
detection and conviction. 

It will have been observed that in a general way 
the certainty of conviction increases as the magni- 
tude of the penalty decreases. The reader should 
perform the experiment, making his own arrange- 
ment of the various alternatives and recording them, 
before reading further. The results which are about 
to be given should not be allowed to influence his 
personal reactions. 

The following table of results shows the way in 
which fifty college students (twenty-five men and 
twenty-five women) arranged the various situations. 
In the column on the left are given the various com- 
binations of magnitude of penalty and certainty of 
conviction. Along the horizontal headline are in- 
dicated the various possible positions, ranging from 
1 to 10. For a situation to be placed under 10 would 
mean that the particular combination represented 
was felt to constitute the strongest deterrent in the 
series, the strength of deterrence decreasing from 



266 



APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 



10 to 1. The figures in the various columns indicate 
the per cent of all the observers who placed the 
given situation at the point indicated. Thus in the 
case of the one year penalty, 10 per cent placed it 
in first place, 8 per cent in second place, 10 per cent 
in third, 14 per cent in fourth, 24 per cent in fifth, 
28 per cent in sixth, 2 per cent each in seventh, 
eighth and ninth, and none in tenth. 



Penalty 



Table of Results 

Distribution of Judgments 



123456789 10 



10 Days 
1000 certain. 
1 month 
900 certain. . 

3 months 
750 certain. . 
6 months 
660 certain.. 

1 year 

500 certain. . 

2 years 

250 certain.. 

4 years 

120 certain . . 

8 years 

60 certain . . . 

16 years 

30 certain... 

Life 

10 certain... 



16 2 6 6 18 14 4 4 12 18 



8 26 4 8 4 8 6 10 24 2 



2 6 30 10 6 10 6 26 2 2 



8 14 10 22 16 28 2 



10 8 10 14 24 28 2 2 2 



8 4 12 8 32 28 2 6 



6 12 4 24 8 6 32 4 4 



86 18 2688 42 20 



1 18 2 2 2 8 10 4 46 2 



16 42424226 58 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 267 

In general these fifty people are seen to be made 
up of two different groups. The small penalties, 
with high certainties, tend to be placed more often 
either very high or very low. The larger the penalty 
and smaller the certainty the more the situation 
tends to be shifted toward the middle of the range, 
until the medium penalties (1 and 2 years) are 
reached. When this medium point is passed the 
lines divide again, and the larger numbers occur 
closer and closer to the extreme positions. 

Now if the various situations were equally deter- 
rent, we might have expected the same distribution 
of positions in all cases. If for all members of the 
group the larger penalties and the larger certainties 
were more deterrent we might have expected a sin- 
gle line, shifting from one extreme toward the cen- 
ter, then back again. If only penalty or only cer- 
tainty were the crucial determinant, we might have 
expected one line of plurality choices, marching 
either one or the other way across the table. 

But none of these results occurs. Instead, there 
is one group of people for whom the penalty is the 
determining factor and another for whom the cer- 
tainty is the chief deterrent. For both groups the 
average penalties and average certainties have only 
average deterrent strength. One group is inclined 
to take the large chances of escape, risking the large 
penalty. The other group shows no inclination to 
gamble, preferring to accept the high probability of 
a small penalty. What individuals comprise these 



268 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

two groups the table does not show. The reader 
who may suggest that the men make up one group 
and the women the other is, however, in the wrong. 
The men and women react in the same way, and 
both show the division into two rather distinct 
groups, with small numbers of individuals occupy- 
ing the gaps between. 

If each time a situation is placed in 10th, 9th, 8th, 
7th, etc., position it be credited with 10, 9, 8, 7, etc., 
points respectively, and the total points computed 
for each situation, the following values result. The 
larger the score the greater will be the judged de- 
terrent effect on the total group of observers. 

Order of 
Situation Score Strength 

10 days, 1000 certain 292 3 

1 month, 900 certain 265 5 

3 months, 750 certain 261 6 
6 months, 660 certain 223 10 

1 year, 500 certain 224 9 

2 years, 250 certain 244 8 

4 years, 120 certain 253 7 
8 years, 60 certain 285 4 

16 years, 30 certain 331 2 

Life, 10 certain 372 1 

These results show that the extremes, either of 
penalty or of certainty, are judged to have the 
stronger deterrent effect on the group as a whole, 
the average degrees of each being relatively weak. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 269 

Penalties of 8 years or more, even with high proba- 
bilities of escape, are definitely judged more deter- 
rent than penalties of 3 months or less, with almost 
absolute certainty of conviction. 

No one realizes more than the one who planned 
and conducted this little investigation the numerous 
difficulties, complications, objections and sources of 
error which beset such inquiries in legal and crimi- 
nal psychology. These need not be rehearsed here, 
although the inquiring student may well consider 
them, inasmuch as each but raises to consciousness 
a further problem, which might itself be investi- 
gated by some such procedure as that here followed. 
In this field as in many others the mere raising of 
problems to consciousness and their preliminary 
attack by methods however inadequate may consti- 
tute significant contribution. 



CHAPTER XV 

PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 

The Causes of Misery.— In the case of social work 
there is afforded the best possible example of a field 
in which the contribution of psychology is essentially 
in the form of content or knowledge, rather than by 
way of attitude or technique. The probation officer, 
social visitor, charities investigator, eugenic field 
worker, child-placing agent or settlement organizer 
who attempts to pursue such work without an ade- 
quate knowledge of the characteristics, types and 
variations of human nature, a clear understanding 
of the original tendencies of mankind, some degree 
of acquaintance with the psycho-biological facts of 
heredity, and especially a familiarity with the vari- 
ous signs and consequences of mental deviation and 
abnormality, must work blindly. 

However important, among the causes of misery, 
the economic institutions, industrial forms of or- 
ganization, and environmental inequalities may be, 
most conspicuous of all are those traits of human 
nature which classify their possessor as incompe- 
tent, irresponsible, stupid, neurotic, feeble-minded or 
insane. Studies of vagrants and of hoboes in large 

270 



PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 271 

cities have revealed the fact that by actual mental 
examination a very large proportion are of a grade 
of mental capacity less than that of a ten-year-old 
child, although they are physically and chronologi- 
cally adult. In the light of such facts, while one 
may still be concerned for the regeneration of the 
hobo, his "wanderlust" assumes a very different 
aspect from that which the romances of gypsy life 
commonly emphasize. 

During a recent winter the vast number of the 
"unemployed' ' applying for food, clothing and shel- 
ter led to a careful investigation of a large number 
of such applicants, chosen at random from the large 
number. Of those so examined one out of every 
seven adult men was found to have an intelligence 
coefficient of less than 70 per cent, that is, to be 
definitely feeble-minded or worse. In the population 
at large, however, only about one in every 200 has 
such low mentality. The frequency of mental de- 
fectiveness among these unemployed was thus about 
thirty times as great as among the general popula- 
tion. Moreover, for such a group to contain so 
large a proportion of such low grade cases implies 
that the great majority of the group stood just above 
the border line of mental defectiveness. And these 
considerations do not take into account a very large 
proportion of the men, who although not of orig- 
inally feeble mind, were chronically alcoholic or 
possessed of other vicious habits which were men- 
tally and physically incapacitating in their effects. 



272 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

No matter how one seeks to explain or interpret 
these striking results, it is still true that mental in- 
competence was in great measure if not entirely re- 
sponsible for the fact that these "unemployables" 
became a burden on public and private philanthropy. 
Attempts to remedy the effects without understand- 
ing the cause merely involve the worker in an end- 
less task. The social worker engaged in the actual 
handling of these cases of misery, or in the ameliora- 
tion of such social or economic conditions as may 
have aided in the revelation of incompetence should 
above all things be able, in dealing with the cases 
as individuals, to recognize the signs and symptoms 
of mental abnormality and to be alert to their sig- 
nificance if present. Eef ormers interested in modify- 
ing legislation toward economic readjustment in the 
interests of the miserable can no more safely ignore 
the mentality of their clientele than can the bridge 
builder ignore the base on which his piers are built. 

The large body of psychological knowledge re- 
lating to the nature, varieties and treatment of men- 
tal deviation can by no means be even outlined in 
such a chapter as this. Nor can space be given to 
any presentation of such socially important matters 
as the physical, social or hereditary influences in 
part responsible for the incidence of mental dis- 
order. In the study of psychopathology and espe- 
cially in the study of mental hygiene and the rapidly 
growing body of experience relating to the impor- 
tance of psychogenic and functional influences and 



PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 273 

mechanisms on the integrity of feeling, thought and 
conduct, the social worker finds a major occupation. 
The psychology of habit formation and adaptation 
is no less important. When not dependent on a 
background of physical and mental incapacity, mis- 
ery often results from the formation of vicious 
habits, — such as those of idleness, gambling, the use 
of drugs, gang life, sexual irregularity, etc. One 
familiar with the psychology of habit and learning 
readily realizes the hopelessness of attempting to 
change destructive habits through mere exhortation, 
instruction or the infliction of penalty. The break- 
ing up of an established habit can be best accom- 
plished by the formation of a counter tendency of 
greater strength. But the formation of new habits 
cannot be verbally impressed. The new habit, if 
it is to be well grounded, must issue on the back- 
ground of spontaneous purpose, desire and determi- 
nation. No amount of petition, reproach or ridicule 
can take the place of the "will to learn." In train- 
ing animals it is found that repeatedly putting the 
creature's limbs through the series of movements he 
is expected to perform does not lead to his acquiring 
such a motor habit. Much more effective are his own 
spontaneous and random efforts to achieve some 
desired end or reward, if perchance this reward can 
be secured only through the accidental stumbling 
upon the appropriate course of conduct. The reform 
of the social derelict must in much the same way 
<5ome from within rather than from without, and 



274 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

comprehension of the laws of habit and adaptation 
may save the social worker not only much time and 
energy but also much chagrin and self-reproach. 

Delinquency and Deficiency. — Equally important 
are the existence, diagnosis and consequences of 
mental deficiency and abnormality for the probation 
officer, the truant officer, and those in charge of 
orphanages, refuges, homes for the delinquent, and 
organizations for the placing of homeless children. 
The following table 1 shows the proportion of the in- 
mates of various reformatories and refuges who are 
by actual examination found to be mentally deficient. 

Per cent 
Institution Defective 

St. Cloud, Minnesota, Reformatory 54 per cent 

Railway, New Jersey, Reformatory 46 

Bedford, New York, Reformatory 80 

Lancaster, Mass., Girls' Reformatory 60 

Lancaster, Mass., Paroled Girls 82 

Westboro, Mass., Lyman School for Boys. . . 28 

Pentonville, 111., Juveniles 40 

Massachusetts Reformatory, Concord 52 

Newark, New Jersey, Juvenile Court 66 

Elmira, New York, Reformatory 70 

Geneva, 111 89 

Ohio Boys' School 70 

Ohio Girls' School 70 

Virginia, three reformatories 79 

New Jersey State Home for Girls 75 

Glenn Mills Schools, Pennsylvania, Girls . • 72 

1 Above summary taken from Goddard, "Feeble-Mindedness, 
Its Causes and Consequences." 



PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 275 

In the long ran it would seem safe to say that at 
least half of the inmates of such reform institutions 
are mentally incompetent. Precisely how close a 
relation this indicates between juvenile delinquency 
and mental deficiency it is not easy to say, since in 
these cases we are dealing only with those delin- 
quents whose low intelligence did not enable them 
to escape or to cover up their delinquency. It is at 
least clear that those delinquents with whom the 
social worker comes in contact should always be 
approached in the light of their known mental status. 

In a recent investigation of truancy, one hundred 
and fifty cases, including boys and girls, were men- 
tally examined by approved psychological methods. 
"Of all the truants, 43% were actually feeble-minded 
and 8% were border line cases.' 9 Concerning these 
the investigator, Miss Elizabeth Irwin, writes : 

Legally these cases do not belong to the attendance offi- 
cer and it is simply because their true difficulty is unde- 
tected that 43% of the 150 cases were on the truant lists 
at all. If 43% of the actual number are mentally defec- 
tive, surely a much larger proportion than 43% of the at- 
tendance officer's time is spent on these cases, for they are 
the hardest and most hopeless and the least improvable of 
all the cases with which he has to deal. Every effort made 
by the attendance officer on these cases is an effort to push 
a square peg into a round hole. 

In institutions such as reformatories and prisons 
in which various forms of self-governing and honor 



276 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

systems of control and management have been insti- 
tuted it is found that a disregard of the presence 
of the mental defective means inevitably the break- 
down of the system and consequent major or minor 
local disaster as well as general penological impedi- 
ment. 

Especially in the case of women and girls is men- 
tal deficiency likely to involve some catastrophe 
which labels the unfortunate person as a delinquent. 
Prostitution, abandonment of children, illegitimate 
parenthood, cruelty, vagrancy, are all of them de- 
pendent to considerable degree on the f eeble-minded- 
ness of the women and girls involved, and the con- 
sequent ease with which they are preyed on by un- 
scrupulous or equally feeble-minded men and boys. 
The feeble-minded girl or woman is a particularly 
grave social problem for various reasons. The non- 
competitive character of the work into which women 
traditionally drift means a small likelihood of the 
detection of feeble-mindedness except under condi- 
tions of special attention or catastrophe. Further, 
we are now coming to realize that feeble-minded 
parents mean feeble-minded offspring. 

It would be unpsychological indeed to assert that 
all delinquency results from mental deficiency, in- 
stability or disorder. The important point is that 
these factors are so frequently the responsible ones 
that no social worker, however earnest and zealous, 
can be of maximum service without more or less 
familiarity with the facts of mental abnormality and 



PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 277 

the methods or agencies in the use of which its diag- 
nosis may be made. 

By way of illustration may be given the results 
of a study of 1,000 consecutive cases brought to 
the Clearing House for Mental Defectives of New 
York City. Of these 1,000 cases, 568 were males and 
432 females. The following table shows the rela- 
tion between mental age and actual age at the time 
of examination, for each sex separately. 

Showing the Relation Between Mental Age and Ac- 
tual Age at the Time of Examination 



Mental 
Age, 

Yrs. 

(Binet) 

0-4 
4-5 

5-6 

6-7 

7-8 

8-9 

9-10 
10-11 
11-12 
12+ 



Actual Age When Brought to the Clearing House 




Males 




Females 


Average 


A.D. 


Cases 


Average 


A.D. Cases 


7.1 


3.2 


92 


8.1 


3.8 65 


9.2 


2.4 


29 


11.4 


4.3 16 


12.6 


4.2 


25 


13.2 


4.3 32 


11.4 


2.9 


42 


15.8 


6.0 40 


13.5 


2.9 


76 


15.0 


4.6 45 


12.9 


2.5 


82 


17.2 


5.1 56 


14.0 


2.7 


70 


17.3 


4.3 53 


15.2 


2.7 


57 


18.5 


5.4 46 


14.2 


1.0 


20 


17.7 


2.5 . 27 


13.0 


0.0 


4 


16.8 


2.9 6 



The facts are as follows: 

1. — More males than females are brought to the 
Clearing House in a ratio of about 1.3 to 1.0. 



278 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

2. — At the age of 1-2 years the frequency for 
males and females is equal. From the age of 2 to 
the age of 16 there is a very marked preponderance 
of males. At the age of 16 the curves cross and from 
that point on there is a very marked preponderance 
of females. 

3. — Females survive in the social milieu till be- 
yond the age of 16 years twice as frequently as do 
males; females survive in the social milieu till be- 
yond the age of 30 years three times as frequently 
as males. 

4. — The Binet measuring scale shows that for all 
mental ages the average actual age at examination is 
older for girls than for boys — this difference be- 
coming very marked after the mental age of 6 
years. 

The figures show, for instance, that a female with 
a mental age of 6 years survives in society about 
as well as a male with a mental age of 10 or U 
years. 

5. — The average deviations from the above aver- 
ages are greater in all cases for girls than for boys, 
indicating that any male is much more certain to 
be brought to the Clearing House at a given average 
age than is a female of the same degree of defective- 
ness. 

6. — Of the 159 women over 16 years of age, the 
majority had found a more or less secure economic 
basis for survival either in housework or in pros- 
titution. 



PSYCHOLOGY FOR 1 HE SOCIAL WORKER 279 

Commenting on the significance of these facts, the 
investigator writes as follows : 2 

These facts are interesting and significant for all who 
are immediately or remotely concerned with social prob- 
lems. To interpret them we have but to reflect on our 
social organization. Women are not a competitive class. 
Their work is housework, performed in isolation and not 
in competition with others for a wage. Moreover, in our 
social organization, sex as such may easily become a com- 
mercial asset to women, and opens to them ways wherein 
they can survive without much regard to mental deficiency. 
Men, on the other hand, form a highly competitive class, 
working together in competition, for a wage. The boy who 
cannot compete mentally becomes at an early age an object 
of concern to relatives, is brought to the clinic and is di- 
rected toward an institution. The girl who cannot com- 
pete mentally is not so often recognized as definitely defec- 
tive, since it is not unnatural for her to drop into the isola- 
tion of the home where she can "take care of " small chil- 
dren, peel potatoes, scrub, etc. If physically passable, as is 
often the case, she may marry, thus fastening herself to 
economic support ; or she may become a prostitute, to which 
economic pursuit feeble mentality is no barrier. Thus they 
survive outside of institutions. Our data here reveal how 
accidental are the causes which finally bring them after 
thirty years to the Clearing House. The writer has fre- 
quently questioned those who accompany them when they 
come. Answers like these are typical: "Her husband has 
just died"; "She got rheumatism and can scrub no more"; 
1 ' She was a prostitute, but physical illness has driven her 
from the street." No one can doubt that there are scores 

2 "The Frequency of Amentia as Related to Sex," Dr. Leta S. 
Hollingworth, Medical Record, Oct. 25, 1913. 



280 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

of feeble-minded women at large to whom these accidents 
have not happened. 



The Nature of Abnormality.— The history of the 
agencies of social amelioration from the middle ages 
to a very recent epoch is marred by the persistent 
failure to understand the nature of mental abnor- 
mality. Bodily disorders were readily handed over 
to the medicine man or the doctor. But mental ab- 
normality until very recent years was looked on 
with superstitious ignorance as a token of some sort 
or degree of social crime, religious punishment or 
astrological disaster. The mentally abnormal, far 
from being treated as sick bodies or sick souls, were 
imprisoned in dungeons, beaten, scourged, tortured, 
burned or turned loose to die in desert or wilder- 
ness. Even in our own generation the failure to 
comprehend the nature of mental abnormality has 
led to methods of social treatment and restraint in 
which the imbecile, the epileptic, the insane, the 
pauper and the criminal were huddled together in 
jail, without occupation, exercise, segregation or 
proper nursing. The failure to realize the heredi- 
tary character of at least some forms of mental dis- 
order has led to the multiplication of family strains 
which no amount of social zeal can easily eliminate. 

One of the most useful concepts that the social 
worker in any branch of service can acquire is that 
of the curve of distribution of mental traits. By 
this is meant the fact that human beings do not fall 



PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 281 

into sharply separated types or species such as the 
normal, the feeble-minded, the insane, etc. Instead, 
in any single trait that might be measured the human 
family would be found to constitute but a single 
species, — to fall into the limits of a normal curve 
of distribution. Such a curve of frequency means 
(a) that all degrees of any trait or characteristic 
will be found to occur ; (b) that certain degrees of it, 
the median, modal or average degrees occur most 
frequently, so that (c) those individuals possessing 
this median degree of the trait constitute the normal 
or typical, while (d) as one goes above or below this 
region of normality the individuals become fewer 
and fewer. 

The stupid, the feeble-minded, the imbecile, the 
idiotic, are thus in no sense distinct or peculiar 
types, but represent the lower degrees of capacity, 
just as the competent, the talented, the distinguished 
and the individuals of genius represent the extreme 
degrees in the more desirable direction. The dis- 
tinctions are practical, social, statistical, rather than 
qualitative and psychological. Similarly in the case 
of the insane no unique nor novel characteristics are 
present. The symptoms that lead to classification 
are but the exaggeration or the reduction, to greater 
or less degree, of characteristics, reactions, mechan- 
isms and tendencies possessed by all mankind. Nor- 
mal and abnormal are then mainly differences in 
degree. Insanity is more a type of character than 
it is a definite disease entity, and in the various clin- 



282 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ical pictures one sees "normal" human nature as 
through a telescope. Between the ' i normal ' ' and the 
"abnormal" come the "border line cases," less fre- 
quent than the normal but more frequent than the 
obviously abnormal, and of equal or even greater 
social significance. 

The Abstraction Fallacy.— The foregoing facts 
concerning the nature of mental variation and the 
distribution of human traits should also be of special 
significance to the social worker who is more inter- 
ested in the contemplation of the social program 
than in actual participation in its events. The social 
philosopher has until very recent times been misled 
by the very common and hence natural fallacy of 
conceptualizing the descriptive facts of history and 
then treating them as if they were active agents 
rather than convenient abstractions. The result has 
been that in social discussions and program-making 
the concrete and varying individuals who make up 
the population have frequently been neglected in 
favor of such inactive abstractions or words as 
"labor," "capital," "the state," "the family," 
"custom," "public opinion," etc. It has been espe- 
cially difficult for the social philosopher to realize 
that "people in general" are not "general people," 
and that similarity of conduct does not imply iden- 
tity or singleness of motive. 

Thus when a wave of coughing passes through a 
multitude, the social philosopher deftly dismisses the 
phenomenon as a case of "imitation," the fact being 



PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 283 

that each single individual coughs for his own par- 
ticular individual reason, just as he coughs in his 
own particular individual larynx. The descriptive 
fact of "similarity," while it may serve the purpose 
of historical record and generalization, can by no 
means be conceptualized into such an active and 
explanatory agent as "imitation." Similarly social 
resemblances are not caused by "custom," but in 
themselves constitute what is meant descriptively 
or historically by that term. In so far as this is 
true, the "individualization of sociology" and of the 
point of view of the social worker (in time perhaps 
of the social philosopher as well) may happily result 
as a useful application of the psychology of indi- 
vidual differences. 



CHAPTER XVI 

PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 

General Relations.— In considering the relations of 
psychology and medicine it is obvious that one does 
not have in mind that type of psychology which 
limits itself to the introspective analysis of the ele- 
ments of consciousness and the forms and patterns 
of their combination. The psychology which admits 
of practical application in any field is that larger 
science which occupies itself with the behavior of 
organisms in so far as that behavior is at one time or 
another paralleled by consciousness or is directly 
conditioned by the modifiable activity of the nervous 
system. Two forms of behavior are to be distin- 
guished in the subject matter of this psychology, — 
the one constituted by the behavior of mental proc- 
esses and the mechanisms of consciousness ; the other 
by the motor behavior of the body and the mechan- 
isms of activity. Under the first we study such func- 
tions as sensation, imagery, association, feeling, 
emotion, motivation, meaning, impulse; under the 
second such topics as habit, instinct, attention, fa- 
tigue, learning, work, practice, reaction, etc. Of 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 285 

course most of these topics are, as a matter of fact, 
interesting from both points of view. 

It is necessary to consider in this connection not 
only such work as professional psychologists have 
accomplished, but all work that can properly be 
called psychology in the light of the definition we 
have just given. Much psychological work has been 
done by medical investigators, but their work, in so 
far as it is valid, is none the less psychological be- 
cause of the mere fact of their medical training. 
Lester Ward was an eminent botanist, but his many 
valuable contributions to sociology are not for that 
reason to be credited to the science of botany. 

A science is, on the one hand, a more or less 
unique method or set of methods of controlling or 
examining phenomena. On the other hand, it is a 
more or less systematic array of facts, data and laws, 
acquired or established by the use of some such 
methodology. The incidental applications of the 
science may be based on the methodology, or on the 
resultant knowledge or on both. In a discussion of 
the extrinsic usefulness of any given science it is 
well to bear this in mind, and any attempt to extend 
the application of such science should be supported 
by discernment of the direction in which the possi- 
bilities are conceived to lie. A mere ardor to be of 
service is bound to prove cither inadequate or mysti- 
fying. 

From the point of view of method and from the 
point of view of content, then, what have been the 



286 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

contributions of psychology to medicine, and what 
further serviceableness may we reasonably expect? 
It may be said at once that in so far as medicine 
has profited from its utilization of psychology, this 
profit has been mainly by way of methodology and 
technique. In so far as there has been any inter- 
change of content, psychology has been far more 
blessed in its receiving than in its giving. Medical 
clinics and medical practices have been drawn on 
freely for data, problems, suggestions and illustra- 
tions, and psychology still shows, in many quarters, 
pronounced anatomical, physiological and clinical 
leanings. 

The affiliation of psychology with medicine is of 
necessity a most intimate one, and this has long been 
recognized. Lotze 's ' ' Medicinische Psychologie ' ' on 
the one hand and Tuke's "Dictionary of Psycholog- 
ical Medicine" on the other bear testimony to this 
affiliation. Or we may pair off in much the same 
way the various textbooks of physiological psychol- 
ogy, written by psychologists, and the books on ab- 
normal psychology written for the most part by med- 
ical men. The Vienna and Zurich schools of psy- 
chiatry make much use of psycho-analysis, which in 
its various forms is but an elaboration of classical 
experiments of the psychological laboratory. On 
the other hand men and women whose chief interests 
are psychological are seeking and being appointed 
to research positions in connection with many of our 
leading hospitals. All of these facts indicate that 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 287 

psychology and medicine are, in part at least, joint 
tenants of some common ground of content or of 
method. 

The contributions or relations of psychology to 
medicine may be presented under six chief headings. 
We shall briefly point out these six directions, illus- 
trate them, and indicate whether the contribution is 
chiefly of content or of method. 

Psychological Researches on Patients.— Three sub- 
divisions may be pointed out here : 

(a) The mental and motor behavior of patients, as 
studied by psychological methods, may reflect their 
organic condition. Knowledge of this condition may 
be useful to the physician, particularly if a nervous 
disorder is involved. An illustration of this type of 
work is to be found in the recent studies by Dr. F. L. 
Wells, on the behavior of manic-depressive patients, 
in such performances as speed of tapping, speed and 
quality of association, sensory discrimination, dis- 
traction, etc. Interesting correlations are found be- 
tween performance in the tests and organic condi- 
tion at various times in the history of the case. 

(b) Knowledge of the normal types and range of 
variation in mental processes may prove of great 
assistance in diagnosis of supposedly abnormal 
cases, and may be of general use in clinical pro- 
cedure. The work of Kent and Eosanoff on the 
association reactions of normal and abnormal indi- 
viduals may be cited as an illustration in this field. 
A list of 100 test words was arranged, and the free 



288 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

associations to these 100 stimulus words, in the case 
of 1,000 normal people, were experimentally deter- 
mined. When the character of these associates was 
studied, it was found possible to make out normal 
tendencies in the case of each stimulus word, and 
also a normal range of variability within this tend- 
ency. When these associations were classified ac- 
cording to quality, under such headings as rime, 
neologism, perseveration, individual reactions, etc., 
the association types of normal people could be 
made out. 

The same test words were given to 247 patients, 
suffering from the various forms of insanity, and 
these associations similarly studied. Comparison 
of these results with the results secured from nor- 
mal subjects enabled the investigators to draw such 
conclusions as the following: 

With the aid of the frequency tables and the appendix, 
normal reactions, with a very few exceptions, can be sharply 
distinguished from pathological ones. The separation 
. . . simplifies the task of analysis and makes possible 
the application of a classification based on objective cri- 
teria. ... In dementia prcecox, some paranoiac conditions, 
manic-depressive insanity, general paresis, and epileptic 
dementia the test reveals some characteristic, though not 
pathognomonic associational tendencies. 

Further studies of this sort are in progress ; they 
are at once thoroughly psychological and medically 
useful. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 289 

(c) Psychological examination may often be val- 
uable in measuring or demonstrating the efficacy of 
various treatments for abnormal physical condition. 
By way of example the psychological examination of 
hookworm patients recently made by Strong may be 
given. By a series of tests this psychologist meas- 
ured the mental alertness and capacity of children 
who were about to be placed under treatment. At 
the same time he examined in the same way a con- 
trol group of healthy children living under the same 
general condition, and also a group of hookworm 
infected children who were not submitted to treat- 
ment. After the treatment the various groups were 
reexamined by the psychological tests and deter- 
mination made of such changes in mental condition 
as may be produced in the normal and untreated 
groups by mere repetition and growth, and in the 
treated group by these factors plus medical treat- 
ment for the disease. 

The results of this investigation enabled the in- 
vestigators to draw the following conclusions: 

The figures show, then, that hookworm disease unmis- 
takably affects mental development. Treatment alleviates 
this condition to some extent but it does not, immediately 
at least, permit the child to gain as he would if he had 
not had the disease. And the figures apparently further 
show that prolonged infection may produce prolonged ef- 
fects upon mentality — effects from which the individual 
may never entirely recover. 

This investigation by psychologists bears out the claims 



290 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

advanced but not measured by physicians and zoologists 
that the effect of hookworm infection may result in seri- 
ous delay in development of mental activities of children 
and of communities, and may therefore have a seriously in- 
hibitive effect upon the school problems and even upon the 
economic development of hookworm communities. 

It emphasizes more than does any previous study the ad- 
visability of prompt medical treatment even of light cases, 
for the benefit of the children themselves and collectively 
for the better development of the community. 1 

In this field then such contribution as psychology 
may be making to medicine is both by way of tech- 
nique and by way of information. But the informa- 
tion is itself used by the medical man not for its 
psychological value alone, but largely to reenforce 
or supplement his own methods and technique. 

Researches on the Immediate Effects of Drugs.— 
Here medicine must be said to owe a great deal to 
psychology, and the chief contribution has been by 
way of perfected methods. By way of illustration 
one need only compare the unreliable, roughly made 
experiments of Kraepelin and his earlier students 
with certain rigorously controlled investigations 
which have been carried on in psychological labora- 
tories by Eivers, Dodge, Wells, the writers, and 
others. The trouble with the earlier workers was 
that they knew too little about psychological laws, 
psychological sources of error, and the technical 
cautions which must be observed in conducting cru- 

1 Strong, "The Effects of Hookworm Disease." 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 291 

ciaJ experiments on mental and motor reactions. 
Later workers have been more familiar with these 
factors, and they have drawn their knowledge not 
at all from the field of pharmacology but directly 
from the psychological laboratory. Four points may 
be noted as especially important in the improvement 
of scientific technique in drug experimentation. 

The Importance of Controlled Conditions. — This 
is of course a most obvious factor. However, in 
many sciences the general conditions are so stable 
and uniform that many of them may be practically 
disregarded for the purposes of simple experiment. 
Thus the temperature of the room, the day of the 
week, the noonday menu, the sex of the operator, 
and a hundred other conditions are irrelevant to the 
outcome of an experiment in physics, chemistry or 
botany. But in a psychological experiment these 
factors may play an important role. Nevertheless 
one need go back only so far as the time of Kraepe- 
lin's drug experiments to find men investigating the 
influence of tea and coffee in the evenings of days 
on which the subjects of the experiments had taken 
both strychnin and alcohol, experimentally, at an 
earlier hour. "We now know, and partly as a result 
of work done in psychological laboratories, that the 
primary influence of so mild a drug as caffeine may 
persist for twenty-four hours or more. 

Importance of Control Groups. — A second impor- 
tant point in technique, the recognition of which is 
>at least in part due to the influence of psychological 



292 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

methods, is the necessity of a control squad. The 
account of the control group of normal children in 
the case of the hookworm experiments may be re- 
called in this connection. In the case of recent ex- 
periments on the influence of caffeine, a control 
squad ran through the entire experiment, covering 
a period of six weeks, taking daily doses along with 
the other subjects. But these doses, although this 
was known only to the director of the experiment, 
consisted of nothing but sugar of milk. 

This is of course only another point under the 
general one of controlling the conditions, and it 
enables the investigator to compare his drug records 
with records of undrugged subjects, acting under 
the same conditions of practice, excitement, sugges- 
tion, interest, expectation, ennui, fatigue and diur- 
nal variation. This again is a most obvious point, 
yet only a few years ago a medical expert of repute 
was heard to assert that a certain drug produced 
congestion of the cerebral blood vessels, because an 
animal which had been fed this drug was found to be 
in this condition after having been killed by a blow 
on the head. A control animal, which should be 
struck on the head but not fed the drug, seemed not 
to have been even considered, although the experi- 
ment was deliberately performed and in an impor- 
tant connection. 

The Importance of Control Doses. — This may also 
be pointed out. The medical experiments on drugs, 
until within quite recent years, proceeded by ad- 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 293 

ministering, at a known time, a known drag, to a 
subject who had his own prejudices and opinions, 
who was aware of the whole situation, was open 
to all manner of suggestion, and who was at any 
rate more or less interested in the outcome of the 
test, and perhaps excited at the thought of taking 
the drug in question. Yet any change in perform- 
ance under these gross conditions was likely to be 
attributed to the direct action of the drug. It was 
not until Fere, a psychologist, demonstrated the 
stimulating effect of the mere act of swallowing, or 
indeed of simply holding in the mouth, a drink of 
whiskey, thus getting odor, taste, and any conceiv- 
able amount of suggestion, excitement, etc.; and 
until Eivers, another psychologist, wrote his illum- 
inating paragraphs on the technique of drug experi- 
mentation, that medical experimenters came to real- 
ize the importance of the two factors of sensory 
stimulation and suggestion. 

The Standardization of Tests.— -This constitutes 
a fourth point in such technique. Many of the tasks 
set the subjects of drug experiments before the psy- 
chologists addressed themselves to the standardiza- 
tion of series of tests for definite functions or proc- 
esses, measured processes which varied not only 
from individual to individual but even from moment 
to moment or from day to day with a single indi- 
vidual. The much used cancellation test is an in- 
stance of such an ambiguous task. It must be said 
that a great deal remains to be done in the way of 



294 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

standardization of tests, but the point to be made 
here is that it is work which must be done by the 
psychologist, and which when done will represent a 
valuable contribution to the equipment of medical 
workers. 

The Use of Psychological Agents.— This third gen- 
eral topic is one on which the psychologist might be 
expected to dilate at great length. It is the one 
about which most has been written and which is 
quite commonly supposed to constitute the most im- 
portant direction in which psychology may contrib- 
ute to medicine. Suggestion, hypnotism, reeduca- 
tion, synthesis, clarification of complexes, catharsis, 
association and dissociation are the words that come 
to mind in this connection. That some of them are 
psychological words there can be no doubt. That 
they represent genuine mental processes, states or 
functions, and that psychologists are interested in 
discovering and formulating their laws, must be 
granted. But it is equally certain that no little ob- 
fuscation has been caused by pseudo-scientific 
writers who have attempted to arouse dramatic in- 
terest in certain phenomena of fatigue, automatism, 
drowsiness and hysteria, and have drawn into their 
service in this attempt the occult suggestions which 
formerly emanated from the words suggestion and 
hypnotism. As for the terms reeducation and syn- 
thesis, they are not, properly speaking, psychological 
terms at all, but represent large and practical proc- 
esses, with little attempt at psychological analysis, 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 295 

description or formulation. And as for the last two 
processes, association and dissociation, psychology 
has done little more than incorporate in its own lit- 
erature fragmentary clinical pictures and various 
medical speculations. The processes intended by the 
words suggestion, reeducation, synthesis, etc., in the 
manuals on psychotherapy really move on the same 
plane, psychologically, as do such expressions as 
1 ' lend a helping hand, \ ' " set a good example, 99€i give 
direction and advice," "provide an incentive," 
"give encouragement, ' ' "take a little exercise,' ' 
"arrange for new surroundings," "jog the mem- 
ory," etc. All these phrases, it is true, emphasize 
the mental functions of a psychophysical organism 
rather than its physiological processes. This em- 
phasis is perhaps responsible for the first two sylla- 
bles of the word "psychotherapy." And it follows, 
of course, that acquaintance with the laws of mental 
and motor behavior and with the elements, attri- 
butes, genesis and patterns of mental processes is 
favorable to satisfactory work on this plane, as it is 
also in teaching children, hunting wild beasts and 
selling goods. The point is that the use of these 
psychological agents does not require any very pro- 
found knowledge of the refinements of modern psy- 
chology, but rather a sympathetic acquaintance with 
and toleration for human nature. The contribution 
of psychology at this point is not specific in char- 
acter but is rather a general, cultural contribution. 
It seems well to add that the contribution here will 



296 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

become more and more specific when psychology- 
begins to occupy itself still more with the way in 
which mind works, and less with what is in the mind 
at the moment of its operation. 

One of the recent psychological tendencies in med- 
ical practice and medical speculation may deserve 
special attention at this point, — that form of psy- 
chotherapy known as psycho-analysis. The psycho- 
analysts proceed on the assumption that emotional 
experiences and complexes which persist in an un- 
clear or subconscious way, — fears, wishes, etc. — are 
nevertheless active determinants of action, thought 
and feeling. They act chiefly as disturbers; they 
disturb our sleep by dreams ; they disturb our daily 
life by producing phobias, obsessions, dissociations, 
amnesias, slips of hand and tongue, etc. Further- 
more, it is claimed that by some form of the simple 
association experiment, skillfully conducted by an 
experienced analyst, these complexes may be dis- 
covered, brought into clear consciousness, dissipated, 
and the sufferer thereby relieved. The work of 
Freud, Jung, Adler, Brill, Jones and others, may be 
cited here. 

It must be said that psychologists are by no means 
unanimous in their reactions toward the claims, evi- 
dence, and interpretations of the psycho-analysts. 
But the lack of unanimity of individual psycholo- 
gists is one of the things that makes the science 
interesting. We must say at least that in so far as 
psycho-analysis throws genuine light on the causes, 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 297 

conditions and prognosis of functional disorders, 
and in so far as its technique affords relief which 
ordinary therapeutic measures fail to give, it repre- 
sents a real contribution to medical science. How 
far this may be remains for the future to determine. 
It should, however, be pointed out that the mere 
therapeutic success of a technique in no way con- 
stitutes a proof of such speculation as the practi- 
tioner may incidentally indulge in, nor does it by 
itself validate the fundamental assumptions and 
hypotheses underlying the technique. 

The Determination of the Organic Conditions of 
Efficiency.— This constitutes a fourth general field 
in which psychology may make specific contribu- 
tion to medicine. The contribution here is peculiar 
in that it may often appear to be but a contradic- 
tion of the deliveries of medical science. We may 
call attention to but two subdivisions of this general 
topic, — Fatigue and periodicity. 

Fatigue. — The investigation of muscular fatigue 
is so near the border line of physiology and psy- 
chology that little need be said of it here. Perhaps 
the one important point is the fact that psycho- 
logical studies tend constantly to emphasize the 
importance of purely mental factors in the produc- 
tion of supposedly muscular inefficiency; — such fac- 
tors as ennui, loss of interest, the inhibitory action 
of sensations of strain, work habits, and the cus- 
tomary or traditional level of fatigue sensation. The 
distinction between actual exhaustion and mere ces- 



298 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

sation of work because of psychic inhibition, a dis- 
tinction constantly exemplified during psychological 
investigations of fatigue and work, would seem to 
be important in medical diagnosis and therapeutics. 

iWith respect to mental fatigue, the net outcome of 
psychological studies up to date is that the more 
muscular fatigue is eliminated from a given task 
the more unf atiguable does the process become. This 
is often expressed by saying that purely mental 
fatigue has never been satisfactorily demonstrated. 
Of course it is also true that no purely mental proc- 
ess has ever been isolated. There seems to be little 
doubt that by the cooperation of medical science with 
psychological investigation, information may ulti- 
mately be secured concerning the nature and causes 
of fatigue which will be of service to both fields of 
work. 

Periodicity* — But nowhere is psychology more at 
variance with medical science than on the question 
of the relation between organic periodicity and 
psychomotor efficiency. By way of illustration of 
this variance we may refer to the declarations of 
the periodic inefficiency of women, — declarations in 
which medical and semi-medical books abound. It 
is not necessary to entertain the reader with the 
many available quotations from general writers, but 
two or three statements may be presented direct 
from the pens of eminent medical men, by way of 
showing their contrast with the results of carefully 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 299 

controlled psychological experiment and measure- 
ment. 

Max Kunge, a gynecologist of Gottingen, wrote in 
1900: 

An experienced observer will be able to note many in- 
teresting phases in the mental changes of women at men- 
struation. Even though scientific experiments are as 
yet lacking, it may nevertheless be stated that a very great 
number of healthy women are mentally different during 
this period. — All demands on her strength must be remit- 
ted. — For several days she is enfeebled. 

Icard, writing in 1890, concludes : 

The psychical and physical state of woman during the 
menstrual period seems to me to constitute one of the chief 
reasons why she should not administer public affairs. In- 
deed one cannot depend on a health so fragile and so often 
disturbed ; the errors of judgment and the false evaluations 
so often made at that time prove that women are unable 
to undertake comfortably and successfully that which 
should be the exclusive lot of the strong sex. The men- 
strual function may, especially in the case of the predis- 
posed, induce sympathetically a mental state varying from 
a slight psychosis — to absolute irresponsibility. Such is 
the proposition which I lay down and which I shall en- 
deavor to demonstrate. — I shall cite in support of my thesis 
the opinions of the most famous authors. 2 From time to 
time I shall let the ancients speak. — I have consulted dis- 
tinguished alienists, father confessors, the directors of con- 
vents, superintendents of boarding schools, and homes of 

2 Meaning the romantic novelists. 



800 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

refuge, midwives, women of the world — I can do no better 
than to resay badly in prose what Alfred de Musset has 
said so well in verse. . . . 

And authors writing as late as 1909 refer to 
Icard's work as the most authentic and reliable 
discussion of the subject ! 

Ellis writes on the basis of considerable familiar- 
ity with medical literature, as follows : 

It is but the outward manifestation of a monthly physio- 
logical cycle which influences throughout the month the 
whole of a woman's physical and psychic organism. What- 
ever organic activities we investigate with any precision, 
we find traces of this rhythm. While a man may be said 
at all events relatively to live on a plane, a woman always 
lives on the upward or downward slope of a curve. This is 
a fact of the very first importance in the study of the physi- 
ological or psychological phenomena in women. Unless we 
always bear it in mind we cannot attain to any true knowl- 
edge of the physical, mental or moral life of women. 

Mosher 's experiments on blood pressure are often 
cited in evidence of this periodicity. But the 
writers who quote Mosher seem not to have observed 
that the investigator also studied blood pressure in 
men and states in the original report, "The daily 
records of the blood pressure ... on men and 
women under similar condition of life and occupa- 
tion give curves apparently indistinguishable in 
character." Here again we see the value and indis- 
pensability of the control squad. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 301 

In striking contrast with these assertions of 
periodic psychical changes dependent on organic 
rhythms are the results of a recently reported elabo- 
rate experimental study 3 of the facts. The investi- 
gator tested, under controlled conditions, twenty- 
three women for a considerable period of time, meas- 
uring constantly the efficiency with which various 
mental and motor tasks were performed. The tests 
included measures of steadiness, speed of movement, 
fatigue, rate and accuracy of perception, swiftness 
and correctness of association, and ease of learn- 
ing. Men subjects were used as a control group. 
The results are described as follows: 

1. — Careful and exact measurement does not re- 
veal a periodic mental or motor inefficiency in nor- 
mal women. 

2. — The variability of performance is not affected 
by physiological periodicity. 

3. — No regularly recurring period of maximum 
efficiency within each month is discernible. The 
" cycle" referred to by Ellis and others is not dis- 
covered by methods of precision. 

4. — No agreement is established between curves 
previously platted for pulse, blood pressure, tem- 
perature, caloric radiation, etc., and the curves of 
work for the mental and motor traits here tested. 

We need not attempt in this connection to settle 
the dispute over the question of periodicity in men- 
tal and motor capacity as dependent on organic 

3 L. S. Hollingworth, "Functional Periodicity." 



302 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

rhythms. Nor shall we consider the reliability of 
other alleged rhythms, diurnal variations in effi- 
ciency, periodicity in men, etc. The important point 
is that the findings of modern experimental psy- 
chology, based on examination of normal people, are 
on many of these points much at variance with the 
generalized clinical findings and anecdotes of med- 
ical men. 

The Psychological Clinic— An important develop- 
ment of applied psychology in recent years has been 
the psychological clinic. In such clinics individuals 
are examined by various methods and scales of men- 
tal measurement. By these means it is possible, to 
a degree of accuracy and completeness never before 
attained, to determine the mental condition and 
status. Such determination in these days of indi- 
vidualized pedagogy, individualized punishment and 
industrial emphasis on the individual worker is a 
highly desirable procedure for educational, crimino- 
logical and vocational diagnosis. 

The contact of psychology with medicine at this 
point arises from the fact that the determination of 
mental status has in times past, for rather obscure 
and complex reasons, been assigned to the medical 
man, rather than to the educator, lawyer, clergyman 
or psychologist. Commitment for lunacy, invalida- 
tion of wills, evaluation of testimony, appointment 
of guardians and determination of legal or criminal 
responsibility are still in many parts of the country 
dependent on the verdict of physicians whose chief 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 803 

practice may be in surgery or obstetrics. This has 
been the case although in only two or three medical 
schools is the prospective physician required to give 
any appreciable amount of his time to the study of 
mental normality or disorder. Even the work of 
institutional administration and superintendence has 
traditionally been that of the physician, when men- 
tal deviates and their care were in consideration. 

In recent years two movements have developed, 
both calculated to remedy this obviously unsatis- 
factory tradition. On the one hand there has arisen 
a group of specialists in nervous and mental dis- 
eases, the psychiatrists. These are usually men or 
women with the ordinary medical training, who after 
their medical course have taken occasion, largely 
through interneship or special practice and observa- 
tion, to familiarize themselves in more or less ade- 
quate ways with normal and abnormal psychology. 
On the other hand a group of psychopathologists or 
clinical psychologists has arisen, taking their point 
of departure mainly from the psychological labora- 
tory, and familiarizing themselves more or less ade- 
quately with such branches of science as neurology, 
physiology, biological chemistry, etc. 

In the psychological clinic of today as well as 
in the progressive hospital for the mentally dis- 
ordered and defective, both psychiatrists and clin- 
ical psychologists will commonly be found applying 
to the concrete problems of education, charity, jus- 
tice, industry and social administration, such of the 



304 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

content and technique of medical and psychological 
science as may be found serviceable. 

Psychology and the Medical School. — Our general 
conclusion is then that the chief contribution which 
psychology has made and may be expected to con- 
tinue to make to medical science is methodological 
in character. There seem to be two principal rea- 
sons for this: 

In the first place, the experience and training of 
the medical student are largely clinical. This means 
that his observation is for the most part of patho- 
logical conditions. He may easily fail to acquire 
sufficient information concerning normal types, and 
the direction, conditions and range of normal vari- 
ability. Such knowledge, which might well be par- 
tially furnished by adequate psychological training, 
might at least warn him of the fallacies of general- 
izing clinical findings. 

In the second place, the medical course as it is now 
offered seems to provide little training in exact and 
purposive experimentation. An excessive propor- 
tion of the student's time seems to be occupied with 
the memorizing of anatomical minutiae, the most of 
which are straightway forgotten, the disciplinary 
value of which is at least questionable, and the con- 
tent of which is always accessible in the manuals. 
It seems for these reasons that one of the most 
fruitful contributions which psychology may yet 
make to medicine may be a rigorous, specially adapt- 
ed, full year course in experimental psychology, 



PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 805 

which should be incorporated at an early point in 
the curriculum of the medical schools. In such a 
course much stress should be laid on methods and 
technique of arriving at experimental certainty, 
avoiding logical fallacies and inductive errors, and 
of adequately controlling the grounds of inference 
under circumstances in which very slight factors 
may play important roles. 



CHAPTEE XVH 

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 

The field of education represents the first prac- 
tical activity in which the applications of psychology 
were made in any systematic way. So numerous 
and so varied have these applications become that 
a working knowledge of psychology is now quite 
generally required of all teachers. In training 
schools for teachers the courses in general, experi- 
mental, genetic, abnormal and differential psychol- 
ogy constitute an important part of the curriculum. 
Books on the principles of teaching quite commonly 
begin with some such statement as, "The art of 
teaching is based primarily on the science of psy- 
chology.' ' Not only have certain facts and princi- 
ples of psychology become systematized into a body 
of "educational psychology/' but the individual and 
group methods of the laboratory have been adapted 
to special educational problems under the name of 
"experimental pedagogy" or "experimental educa- 
tion." 

Between these two fields, psychology a^d educa- 
tion, the cooperation has been so long established 

306 



PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 307 

and so cordial that the content of general psychology- 
has been much enriched through investigations, the 
primary problems of which were educational. Since 
these things are true, a chapter on the relations of 
psychology to education can only indicate the main 
directions of application and give suggestive illus- 
trations of each. This may perhaps best be done 
by adhering to our familiar classification of appli- 
cations under attitude, content and technique. 

The Psychological Attitude in Education.— The 
attitude of analysis and its practical value is seen 
in every modern attempt to discuss the nature or 
purpose of education. At an early time we find 
such definitions to consist of large generalities, in 
which the concept of education is more or less 
treated as if it were some single, unitary process, 
and its function maintained to be "training the 
mind," "molding character," "giving culture." A 
real step, however inadequate we may now consider 
it, was taken when "the mind" was analyzed into 
distinguishable and nameable "faculties" and the 
effectiveness of teaching regarded from the point of 
view of these "faculties" and their separate treat- 
ment. Still more wholesome and influential was the 
further step in analysis in which these "faculties" 
(such as memory, instinct, imitation, perception, 
attention, will) were realized to be but convenient 
and artificial names given to various groups of spe- 
cific habits and tendencies. With these steps went 
the breaking up of "learning" or " culture" into 



308 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

more elementary and constituent aspects, the delib- 
erate separation of school subjects from each other, 
and attempts to correlate them in the curriculum in 
such a manner that each set or group of tendencies 
or habits would be given adequate attention, exer- 
cise or inhibition. 

In time this same analytic process led to the dis- 
covery that a "school subject," such as arithmetic, 
is by no means a unitary enterprise on the part of 
teacher or student, but in itself involves a consid- 
erable variety of more elementary processes, each 
of which must be considered in detail if the whole is 
to be adequately and economically mastered. Thus 
in arithmetic the ideas of amount, of units, of se- 
quence and position, of counting, of grouping, and 
of manipulating, familiarity with the symbols, com- 
prehension of the operations and meanings which 
the symbols denote, must all be recognized. Ques- 
tions at once arise concerning the most "psycho- 
logical" sequence and organization of these various 
functions and processes. In a similar way in the 
subject of drawing, the various tendencies and fea- 
tures of ornament, symbolic portrayal, pictorial rep- 
resentation, diagraming, and finally mechanical 
drawing are distinguished. Other "subjects" re- 
ceive, at the hands of the educational psychologist, 
the same type of detailed analysis. 

Not only is the school subject thus reduced to its 
constituent processes, but each operation in one of 
these processes is ultimately analyzed into a group 



PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 309 

of still more specific acts and habits. Thus in such 
a simple operation as adding a column of numbers 
"investigation seems to give evidence that . • • 
eight or nine distinct functions are involved, each of 
which involves the use of several bonds. Besides 
these positive connections, a child in learning (to 
add) must inhibit other connections which are in- 
correct, and these must often outnumber the cor- 
rect ones. And yet column addition has always 
(heretofore) been treated as a simple habit — with 
perhaps one element of complexity when carrying 
is involved. It is evident that if the habit concerned 
does involve eight or nine different functions, a child 
might go astray in any one. His difficulty in form- 
ing the habit might be in connection with one or 
several of the processes involved. Knowledge on the 
part of the teacher of these different steps of the 
habit, and appreciation by him of the possibilities 
of making errors, are the prerequisites of efficient 
teaching of habits." 

The foregoing quotation, from Strayer and Nors- 
worthy's "How to Teach," emphasizes precisely 
that value of analysis which we have already had 
occasion to consider in such diverse fields as brick- 
laying, dishwashing, housecleaning, writing an ad- 
vertisement, selling life insurance, managing a fac- 
tory, or making window screens. Improvement of 
the whole comes only through discernment of the 
parts, and such discernment involves that special 



310 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

mental attitude of analysis which we have found to 
be so characteristic of psychology. 

The attitude of analysis in education is important 
not only for an understanding of the true nature of 
school materials, but is equally valuable in the solu- 
tion of other educational problems. Thus in mod- 
ern administration and supervision there is to be 
seen a definite tendency away from the vague char- 
acterization of a teacher as "a good teacher," 
a "fair" one or a "poor" one, toward a thorough 
analysis of "teaching ability" into its elements. 
Moral influence, social activity, discipline, leader- 
ship, instruction, etc., come to receive independent 
recognition and evaluation. Indeed each of these 
is realized to be complex and the task of "teaching 
a class," from the point of view of instruction alone, 
is analyzed into such distinguishable though by no 
means unrelated steps or stages as "preparation," 
1 ' presentation, " " comparison and abstraction, ' ' 
"generalization," "application," and "drill or re- 
view." "Faulty instruction" can thus be under- 
stood or remedied only by the analysis of one of the 
qualifications of a teacher into still more elementary 
aspects. 

In a similar way such a concept as that of the 
child's "will" has been clarified only by analyzing 
it into the constituent instinctive and emotional 
trends ; these instinctive trends understood only by 
the enumeration of the specific bonds and reactions 
which the "instinct" includes; and the emotions 



PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 311 

comprehended only by breaking them up into the 
elementary feelings and their combinations. These 
changes have clearly paralleled the analyses of 
physiological psychology, from the conception of the 
unitary brain as the " organ of mind/' through the 
reduction of this unit into "areas" or "regions" of 
localization, the analysis of these "regions" into 
"arcs" and "pathways," and finally to the "neu- 
rone theory" and the consideration of particular 
conduction units, synapses, conditions of prepared- 
ness and readiness, inhibition, facilitation and in- 
tegration. 

The Content of Psychology in Education.— Per- 
haps the earliest contributions of psychology to edu- 
cation were in the form of facts or laws of mental 
life. Indeed long before psychology became recog- 
nized as an independent field of scientific inquiry 
writers on educational subjects were mainly occu- 
pied with discussions concerning the nature of the 
child's mind, the sources of his interest, the varie- 
ties of his powers and the modifiability of his ca- 
pacities. The work of education came to be con- 
ceived as that of effecting changes in the behavior 
or feeling of the individual who was taught. The 
possibility of these changes was, of course, seen to 
depend not only on their social or parental desir- 

k 

ability but most of all on the materials afforded, — 
the fund of traits and tendencies with which the 
individual is originally equipped, and the degree, 
permanence or modifiability of these traits. 



312 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

The "original nature of man," his inborn tenden- 
cies to attend, react and retain, his predispositions, 
the range and limits of his capacities, the rate at 
which these mature, the conditions of their effective 
activity, their transitoriness, their mutual inhibi- 
tions and reinforcements, the teacher is compelled, 
either beforehand or through painful experience, 
to learn. For these original traits are given only 
in the form of certain large and vague tendencies and 
the task of education consists in so working with 
these vague original tendencies as to make the indi- 
vidual most effective in the circumstances and for 
the purposes for which he is to live. Some of these 
tendencies must be inhibited if the individual is to 
be socially adapted, as, for example, his tendencies 
to take what he sees, to strike when injured or 
affronted. Other tendencies must be' selectively 
trained, stimulated and specialized, as his tendencies 
to vocal utterance, to motor activity, to construc- 
tion. Still other tendencies must be directed, modi- 
fied and transformed, as those to inquisitiveness, to 
collection of objects, to play and to hunt. In such 
processes it is important to know in some detail 
the ways in which original tendencies may be modi- 
fied, the consequences of their enforced suppression, 
their futility unless directed. Punishment, disuse 
and substitution may all be employed in this process, 
but by no means all of them with equal success or 
on all occasions. 

Still further reaction tendencies in the form of 



PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 313 

feeling, conduct or knowledge, not provided by orig- 
inal nature, must be impressed on the individual in 
the form of habits. Talking, reading, writing, using 
a machine, the multiplication table, and a thousand 
habits, simple and complex, must all be individually 
acquired. It is the task of education to see that 
these habits are most adequately, economically and 
permanently acquired. Here then all the laws of 
learning, all the studies of memory, all the facts and 
principles of habit formation, interference, forget- 
ting, association, etc., are of vital importance in the 
operations of the classroom, the laboratory and the 
textbook. Studies of animal learning yield prin- 
ciples which may be directly utilized in teaching the 
human being. The advantages of spontaneous ef- 
fort over mechanical repetition, the relative ef- 
fectiveness of reward and punishment, the influence 
of motive and incentive, the inadequacy of imitation, 
the importance of pleasure in success, the expecta- 
tion of a systematic curve of learning, the meaning 
of plateaus, the value of determining tendencies, in- 
tentions and purposes, the value of problem or 
project, the character of play tendencies and their 
possibility of useful organization and direction, the 
specific nature of habits, the absence of any consider- 
able transfer from one field to another, the signifi- 
cance of identical elements in materials, work habits 
or general attitudes, all these are but random selec- 
tions from an endless list of principles which it is 



314 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

the business of psychology to study and the business 
of the teacher to apply. 

uSTo less important than for the social worker, the 
judge, the manager and the physician are the facts 
of differential or individual psychology for the 
teacher. The knowledge of the ways in which indi- 
viduals differ from each other, the degrees and di- 
rections of this variation, its causes and educational 
consequences is the foundation on which must be 
based all discipline, all differentiation of studies, all 
guidance and advice, all appointment and control. 
Every teacher of experience can narrate, from ear- 
lier years of work, case after case in which labor, 
worry and sacrifice were entailed by the failure to 
recognize, in the "problem," a mentally defective 
boy, an adolescent girl, a neurotic parent, a paranoid 
superintendent or a senile member of the board. 
Many a microcephalic child, with his irremediable 
mental limitations, has caused the teacher sleepless 
nights, and many a pupil has in turn been seriously 
impeded through life because of the principal's fail- 
ure to understand the true nature of a speech defect, 
a choreic tic, or a proclivity for day-dreaming. 

The individualization of pedagogy has set the key 
note for the individualization of most diverse fields 
of human activity, in spite of the institutional, ad- 
ministrative and financial obstacles which it has 
encountered. Especially characteristic of modern 
education is the study of individual differences in 
mental constitution, and the attempt to recognize 



PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 315 

these differences in classification, discipline and 
teaching. The traditional classification on the basis 
of physical age has given way to the recognition of 
mental level and the possibility of its determination 
in education long before it will disappear from law 
and social custom. 

Modern psychological experiments and investiga- 
tions must be taken into account in any effort to 
adjust the educational program to such differences 
as may be due to race and ancestry. The provision 
of equal and identical educational and professional 
opportunity and encouragement now rapidly being 
extended to all individuals regardless of sex is in 
part due to, and throughout justified by, the demon- 
strations of experimental science that in no measur- 
able respect, whether in type, degree, or variability, 
is mental capacity originally conditioned by the bio- 
logical accident of sex. 

In the modern school not only are efforts made 
to adjust the curriculum and the extra academic 
activities to the individual differences of the pupils, 
but special classes and methods are adapted to the 
particular needs of the feeble-minded, the backward, 
the precocious, the normal, the sick, the crippled, the 
blind and the deaf. Even special classes for those 
to whom spelling or arithmetic present special diffi- 
culties are by no means uncommon. The poor speller, 
the truant, the blockhead, the prodigy, instead of 
being sources of worry, prayer and administra- 



316 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

tive despair, are fast becoming the subject-matter of 
zealous and scientific research. 

In the study of the original equipment of the race, 
of the ways in which individuals differ, of the proc- 
esses of learning and retention, of the special men- 
tal processes involved in mastering the school sub- 
jects, and in the organization of the school program, 
the work of the day, the method of the classroom, 
and the arrangement of the curriculum, in these and 
in many other ways the content of psychology is of 
indispensable service in education. 

Psychological Technique and Education.— The 
various applications of psychological procedure, 
apparatus and methods range from the use of clas- 
sical psychological experiments in the demonstration 
of the laws of learning, practice, fatigue, etc., to the 
derivation and employment of scales for the meas- 
urement of school products. They include, between 
these limits of academic and practical extremes, such 
further applications as are involved in the employ- 
ment of psychological experiment for the solution 
of educational problems, and the use of scales of 
mental measurement for educational classification 
and guidance. These various forms of application 
may best be presented in the form of concrete 
examples. 

A familiar experiment of the psychological labo- 
ratory consists in the observation and recording of 
the processes gone through in acquiring some new 
habit or act of skill. An animal may be placed in 



PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 817 

a cage from which it can escape only by performing 
some simple or complex set of movements, after 
which it may be rewarded by food. Or a human 
being is given some new task to learn, such as solv- 
ing a puzzle, acquiring dexterity in some muscular 
feat, or becoming proficient in the use of some in- 
strument, some set of symbols, some type of judg- 
ment. Records of the modes of attack, variations 
in method, types of errors, rate of learning, condi- 
tions of improvement, degree and ease of retention, 
tendency to distraction and interference, effects of 
disturbance, introspections of the worker, and simi- 
lar facts, enable the experimenter not only to pic- 
ture in a graphic way the course of the act of learn- 
ing, but also to formulate various general principles 
concerning the relative effectiveness of different 
methods and the differences between individuals. 

The work of the teacher consists mainly in super- 
vising the formation of habits of these and related 
types. It is therefore found useful for the teacher 
to become familiar, through performing such ex- 
periments in the laboratory or observing them in 
the demonstration, with the tendencies and princi- 
ples underlying the learning process. In a similar 
way the classical experiments in memory, percep- 
tion, attention, etc., all have their technical and pro- 
fessional value in picturing in concrete and sys- 
tematic form the psychology of the pupil. It would 
be difficult to find a classical psychological experi- 



818 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

ment that does not, at some point or other, admit of 
practical application in education. 

If now, for the more or less artificial materials 
and acts of the laboratory, the mastering of actual 
school subjects and operations be substituted, the 
laboratory technique leads to a genuine experiment 
in education, especially if the experiment be per- 
formed on such individuals as comprise the school 
population. In this way the value of various meth- 
ods of instruction, arrangements of material, 
amounts of drill, distributions of practice, propor- 
tions of study, rest and recitation, lengths of class 
period, etc., may be accurately and quantitatively 
determined. In such cases the laboratory technique 
is employed not merely by way of illustration, but 
as an instrument of educational research. 

By way of illustration the oft-quoted studies of 
Eice, Stone, Chapman, Courtis, Kirby, White and 
others may be cited. By such experimental methods, 
for example, one investigator was able to measure 
the arithmetical abilities of pupils in several grades 
in a number of schools. He found that the results 
varied greatly from school to school, the capacity 
in each school appearing consistently in all of its 
grades. By comparing these data with the amount 
of time given to arithmetic in the school programs, 
the size of the classes, the age of the pupils, and the 
conditions of their home life, it was shown that none 
of these factors was responsible for the differences 
in arithmetical ability. It is hence suggested that 



PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 319 

variations in methods of teaching and supervision 
are perhaps the responsible factors. The influence 
of these factors may be measured in the same ex- 
perimental way. 

By a somewhat similar procedure Kirby was able 
to show that in the case of practice in arithmetic 
under ordinary school conditions, "the greatest 
gains were made by the groups which had their 
practice in the shortest periods.'' Thirty-nine 
classes, comprising in all 1,350 school children, 
served as subjects of these experiments, practicing 
in addition and division. In the case of addition 
all classes practiced for the same total time, 75 min- 
utes. But this total time was divided and distrib- 
uted in different ways with different groups. In all 
cases there was an initial and a final period, of 15 
minutes each. The intervening 45 minutes of prac- 
tice were distributed in four different ways, over 
different periods of time. One group had two pe- 
riods of 22.5 minutes, another, three periods of 15 
minutes, another, seven 6-minute periods and one 
3-minute period, and the fourth 21 2-minute periods 
and one 3-minute period. In these groups, then, 
the intervening practice periods are of different 
length but amount to the same total time. In the 
case of division three groups practiced for 60 min- 
utes. In all cases there was an initial and a final 
period of 10 minutes, the intervening periods being 
broken up into smaller periods of 20 minutes, 10 



320 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

minutes and 2 minutes in the three groups, respec- 
tively. 

The results of these experiments were as follows : In ad- 
dition the gains from practice in 22.5 minute, 15 minute, 
6 minute and 2 minute periods, respectively, were in the 
relation 100, 121, 101 and 146.5. In division, the gains 
from practice in 20 minute, 10 minute and 2 minute pe- 
riods, respectively, were in the relation 100, 110.5 and 177. 
These experiments were made from the practical point of 
view, from which it is immaterial how much the children 
study the matter that is being practiced outside of school 
hours. If we assume that they did so as much when the 
practice periods were distributed in many short periods as 
when they were distributed in few long periods, the results 
show that the shorter practice periods, especially the 2 min- 
ute periods, are much more advantageous. 

The derivation of scales for the measurement of 
intellectual level was originally prompted by the 
urgent need for such measures in school supervision 
and administration. In the comparative experi- 
ments of pedagogy it is desirable, if possible, to 
select the pupils to be tested in such a way that 
groups of equal native capacity be submitted to the 
conditions of the experiment. In the consideration 
of an individual pupil and his educational difficulties 
it is first of all important to know whether he brings 
a normal intelligence to bear on these difficulties or 
whether he is originally inferior or superior in men- 
tal equipment. His disposition and treatment, his 
classification and direction must be random unless 



PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 321 

these facts be ascertainable. Scales of mental meas- 
urement make possible the prediction, long before- 
hand, of the most probable quality of the pupil's 
later academic and vocational achievement, thus in 
many instances saving waste to society, accident to 
industry, expense and worry to parents, and fruit- 
less effort to teachers and supervisors. The individ- 
ualization of pedagogy is made more completely pos- 
sible by the construction and elaboration, by psycho- 
logical investigators, of the various types of scales 
for mental measurement and intellectual diagnosis. 
Through the intelligent use of these products of the 
laboratory the selective work which the test of the 
school curriculum has traditionally required years 
to accomplish may often be effected in a single hour. 
Growing out of the development of scales for the 
measurement of general mental level and closely re- 
lated to this movement in method and purpose, is 
the recent work on the derivation of scales for the 
measurement of special school products. By meth- 
ods Originally devised for the measurement of expe- 
riences and materials whose values could be serially 
arranged but not quantitatively expressed, the qual- 
ities of such products as handwriting, literary com- 
position, drawing, spelling, arithmetic, reading, lan- 
guage ability, mecKanical construction, etc., can now 
be compared. Such comparison enables the formu- 
lation of scales for the measurement of these school 
products, which may be used to advantage in the 
elementary subjects, in the place of the traditional 



322 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

" examination " with its manifest unreliabilities in 
type of question, relative difficulty of answer and 
solution, assignment of grades, and standards of 
achievement. 

By the use of such scales the pupil himself is 
enabled to observe in a definite way the progress of 
his learning. The teacher is enabled to check up 
her methods of instruction and drill, since such 
scales make possible direct comparison of one class 
with another. The supervisor may from time to 
time determine in exact ways the relative effective- 
ness of the instruction of different teachers, so far 
as the value of this instruction depends on the 
character of the children's work. Standards of 
performance may be laid down for the various school 
grades and uniformity of practice and demand de- 
veloped in different parts of the school system. 
Statements of individual capacity in school subjects 
may assume quantitative form, and the assignment 
of grades and marks loses much of its variability 
and unreliability. The work of one school system 
may be compared with another, and the work of 
surveys thus extended beyond the consideration of 
buildings and grounds, ventilation and salaries, so 
as to include the actual psychological products of 
the classroom. 

Among the product scales that have been devised 
for such educational purposes the following are es- 
pecially well known: Woody Arithmetic Scale, 
Courtis Arithmetic Tests, Thorndike Handwriting. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 323 

Eeading and Drawing Scales, Hillegas and Harvard- 
Newton Composition Scales, Ayres Penmanship and 
Spelling Scales, Trabue Language Scales, and Kelly 
Eeading Scale. The student of applied psychology 
should be interested in becoming acquainted with 
one or more of these instruments, with the technique 
of their formulation and application and the nature 
of their results. Such scales are now being widely 
employed in the classroom, in educational research 
and in school surveys, and constitute perhaps the 
most material contribution of psychological tech- 
nique to education. 



CHAPTEE XVm 

THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

Objections have sometimes been made to the use 
of the term "applied psychology," on the ground 
that the work commonly designated by that term is 
not in the strict sense psychological, — not calculated 
to enlarge the boundaries of psychology as a science. 
It has been suggested, for example, that some such 
terms as "human engineering" or "psychotech- 
nics" would more properly apply. Whatever may 
be the cogency of such objections, the term has come 
to have a definite meaning in its present form, and 
one which in no way conflicts with any other usage 
of these words. Applied psychology, both as a term 
and as a technical type of interest and pursuit, has 
apparently come to stay. More important than a 
dispute over its name is the problem of setting it 
well and legitimately upon its way, guarding it from 
extravagant claim and charlatanry, and establishing 
it upon a foundation of valid and trustworthy data 
and methods. 

In the application of any science to the concrete 
purposes of practical life some adjustment of exist- 
ing machinery or the development of some appro- 
priate institution or professional avenue must al- 

324 



THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 325 

ways be made. The practical worker, whether judge, 
employer, teacher, physician, salesman, executive or 
reformer cannot at the same time devote himself 
entirely to his practical work and also master a 
science. Nor can the scientist at once and indis- 
criminately carry over his knowledge or his methods 
to the solution of practical problems without giving 
heed to the manifold conditions and circumstances 
in which those problems occur. In ordinary circum- 
stances he cannot even become clearly aware of the 
nature of the problems. Some method is always 
necessary whereby the science may be made avail- 
able to the practical worker, and the scientific worker 
informed of the nature and particular circumstances 
of the practical problems. 

In the case of the different sciences which have 
made practical contribution in modern life various 
methods of meeting this demand have arisen. Thus 
in the case of chemistry the method has been estab- 
lished of placing the scientifically equipped worker 
in the midst of the industrial plant, providing him 
with adequate means of research and definitely set- 
ting for him the nature of the problem with which 
his research is to deal. The chemist makes little 
pretense of mastering the details of industry, and 
the manufacturer does not pretend to understand 
the technique nor even the vocabulary of the chemist. 
Each is a specialist in his own field and each accepts 
the problems or results of the other with full co- 
operation. 



326 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

In the case of physics a rather different solution 
has been found. In place of the industrial labora- 
tory of physical research there has developed an 
entirely new professional group, the engineers, who 
may neither profess to further physical research nor 
to occupy themselves with the business details of 
contracting, supplying or manufacture. For their 
training there have developed special and highly 
technical forms of instruction and practice, in which 
the known principles and technique of the physical 
laboratory are demonstrated in the construction and 
planning of buildings, machinery, roads, bridges, 
canals, vehicles, etc. The lines of division are of 
course not rigidly drawn, and an engineer may by 
his technical advances afford new problems or new 
knowledge of a scientific kind or he may identify 
himself more closely with the business enterprises 
within his field. 

In the case of psychology neither of these two 
methods of adjustment has yet been widely adopted, 
although tendencies in both directions may be ob- 
served. In general three other types of adjustment 
or reaction seem to have been attempted, with by 
no means completely satisfactory results in any case. 

In educational organization, supervision and 
teaching the method generally followed has been 
that of giving the practical worker, the superin- 
tendent or teacher, such psychological knowledge 
and training as can be incidentally inserted into the 
course of study in the training school. Thus mea- 



THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 327 

gerly equipped the practical worker has attempted 
to apply this knowledge or technique, in the form of 
principles, methods of measurement, etc., in concrete 
class work, discipline, formulation of a curriculum, 
selection of methods of instruction, etc. This is 
much the same method that would be followed by the 
manufacturer who had taken courses in chemistry 
during his college career and then tried in his occa- 
sional hours of leisure or moments of emergency to 
conduct the chemical investigations for his estab- 
lishment. Only in very recent years have cases 
occurred in which the psychological expert as such 
is called into the school system, for the conduct of 
special types of survey, diagnosis, or research, in 
much the same way that the chemist is placed in a 
modern manufacturing industry. 

In the case of business a rather different method 
has been followed. Here the practical worker has 
been very slow to appropriate such psychological 
knowledge and technique as may have been avail- 
able. Instead, the psychologist, occupied mainly 
with the work of teaching and research, has been 
compelled to acquaint himself in a more or less ama- 
teurish way with the problems of business, market- 
ing and management, working in many cases in the 
face of discouragement or half-hearted cooperation. 
In education the practical worker laid claim to psy- 
chological knowledge; in business the psychologist 
was compelled to pretend or to acquire familiarity 
with commerce and manufacture. In fact only 



828 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 

within the last ten years have there been evidences 
of enthusiastic cooperation, support and consulta- 
tion on the part of the most enterprising executives, 
manufacturers and agencies. 

The third unsatisfactory form of reaction is to be 
found in that border line of psychology and medi- 
cine known as psychopathology or clinical psychol- 
ogy. In the determination of mental status, condi- 
tion and responsibility, in the diagnosis of mental 
defect, in the grading and classification of retarded 
school children, in the acceptance of applicants to 
charitable institutions, the admission of immigrants 
and the disposal of various cases that come before 
the courts or in the reformatories or prisons, there 
has not been so much an adjustment, but rather an 
undesirable sort of rivalry and professional jealousy 
between the psychologists and the doctors. Old- 
fashioned physicians, lacking the modern psychiatric 
and psychological knowledge and technique have 
contended for the field of work with academically 
trained and clinically ignorant psychologists. The 
ideal worker in this field, the psychopathologist, with 
complete psychological and neurological training 
and practical medical knowledge has consequently 
been much retarded in development. 

Of all these five modes of adjustment the three that 
have been most characteristic of psychology in the 
past would seem to be the most undesirable as final 
solutions, from all points of view. Eivalry and pro- 
fessional jealousy mean waste and inefficiency. The 



THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 329 

investigator and teacher in general psychology or 
even in its special fields cannot, except under very 
exceptional circumstances, well do justice to his 
science while also endeavoring to acquire a business 
vocabulary and an expert familiarity with com- 
merce, industry and management. For the practical 
worker in these fields to acquire in an incidental way 
the requisite expert knowledge of psychology is 
equally hopeless. For the development of the "psy- 
chotechnic engineer, ' ' types of instruction, practice, 
and experience are necessary which under the pres- 
ent organization of our university departments can- 
not easily be provided. 

It would seem then that the solution of the imme- 
diate future in applied psychology will be similar 
to that commonly adopted in the case of the applied 
chemists, bacteriologists, etc. It is to be expected, 
however, that in time the rapid development now 
going on in applied psychology will make necessary 
the engineering type of psychotechnic expert, the 
consulting psychologist. 



APPENDIX 

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 

The following list of selected references is given as 
a guide to further reading and as a supplement to the 
book when used as a class text. It is of course very 
far from being a complete bibliography of Applied 
Psychology, for a complete list would now include many 
hundreds of references. The list limits itself in the 
main to books and articles in English, and to sources 
which are readily accessible in almost any college and 
university library. In many of these references will be 
found more complete bibliographies relating to the spe- 
cial topics therein discussed. The references given will, 
however, serve to introduce the reader and student to 
the numerous and w r ide fields of practical application 
which are necessarily presented in the textbook in very 
abbreviated fashion. 

CHAPTER I 

EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 
Munsterberg, H. Psychology, General and 

D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1914. 
Thorndike, E. L. Individuality. Houghton, Mifflin 

Co., Boston, 1911. 
Watson, J. B. Objective Psychology. Lippincott Co., 

Philadelphia, 1919. 
Woodworth, R. S. Dynamic Psychology. Columbia 

University Press, 1918. 

CHAPTER II 

INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY UPON ACHIEVE- 
MENT 

Boas, F. The Mind of Primitive Man. Macmillan Co., 
New York, 1913. 

331 



332 APPENDIX 

Dewey, J. Interest and Effort in Education. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin Co., Boston, 1913. 

James, W., Principles of Psychology, Vol. 2, C. 24. 
Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1890. 

Mayo, M. J. The Mental Capacity of the Negro. 
Archives of Psychology, 1915, No. 33. Science 
Press, New York. 

McDougall, W. An Introduction to Social Psychology. 
Luce & Co., Boston, 1917. 

Tead, O. Instinct in Industry. Houghton, Mifflin Co., 
Boston, 1918. 

Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology. Briefer 
Course, Part I. Teachers College, Columbia Uni- 
versity, 1915. 

Woodworth, R. S. Racial Differences in Mental Traits. 
Science, N. S., 1910. Vol. 31, pages 171-186. 

CHAPTER III 

FAMILY INHERITANCE 

Davenport, C. B. Heredity in Relation to Eugenics. 
H. Holt & Co., New York, 1911. 

Goddard, H. H. The Kallikak Family. Macmillan 
Co., New York, 1912. 

Smith, S., Wilkinson, M. W. and Wagoner, L. G. A 
Summary of the Laws of the Several States Gov- 
erning Marriage and Divorce of the Feeble Minded, 
etc. Bulletin of the University of Washington, 
1914. No. 82. 

Thorndike, E. L. The Measurement of Twins. Sci- 
ence Press, New York, 1905. 

Thompson, J. A. Heredity. Putnam, New York, 1908. 

Walter, H. E. An Introduction to the Study of Hered- 
ity. Macmillan Co., New York, 1913. 

Winship, A. E. Jukes-Edwards, A Study in Education 
and Heredity. R. L. Myers & Co., Harrisburg, 
1900. 

Woods, F. A. Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty. 
H. Holt & Co., New York, 1906. 

Yerkes and LaRue. An Outline of the Study of the 
Self. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1914. 



APPENDIX 333 

CHAPTER IV 

EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 

Book, W. F. The Psychology of Skill. University of 
Montana Publications, Missoula, 1908. 

Bryan and Harter. Studies in the Physiology and 
Psychology of the Telegraphic Language. Psy- 
chological Review, 1897, Vol. 4, pages 27-53. 

Colvin, S. S. The Learning Process. Macmillan Co., 
New York, 1911. 

Culler, A. J. Interference and Adaptability. Arch- 
ives of Psychology, 1912, No. 24. 

Ebbinghaus, Memory. (Trans.) Teachers College, 
Columbia University, 1913. 

Galton, F. Inquiries into Human Faculty. Dutton & 
Co., New York. 

Hollingworth, H. L. Individual Differences Before, 
During and After Practice. Psychological Review, 

1914. Vol. 21, pages 1-8. 

James, W. On Vital Reserves. Henry Holt & Co., 
New York, 1911. 

James, W. Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1, C. 4. 
Henry Holt & Co., 1890. 

Kirby, T. J. Practice in the Case of School Children. 
Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913. 

Kitson, H. D. How to Use Your Mind. Lippincott, 
Philadelphia, 1916. 

Myers, G. C. Incidental Memory. Archives of Psy- 
chology, 1913, No. 26. 

Poffenberger, A. T. The Influence of Improvement in 
One Simple Mental Process Upon Other Related 
Processes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 

1915, Vol. 6, pp. 459ff. 

Ruger, H. A. The Psychology of Efficiency. Archives 
of Psychology, 1910, No. 15. 

Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology, Briefer 
Course, Part H. Teachers College, Columbia Uni- 
versity, 1915. 



334 APPENDIX 

CHAPTER V 

INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE ON EFFICIENCY 

Binet and Simon. The Development of Intelligence 

in Children, 1916, pp. 182-274. Training School, 

Vineland, N. J. 
Castle, C. S. A Statistical Study of Eminent Women. 

Archives of Psychology, 1913, No. 27. 
Ellis, H. Man and Woman. Scribners, New York, 

1914. 
Gates, A. I. Experiments on the Relative Efficiency 

of Men and Women in Memory and Reasoning. 

Psychological Review, 1917. Vol. 24, pp. 139-146. 
Hall, G. S. Adolescence. Appleton & Co., New York, 

1904. 
Goldmark, J. Fatigue and Efficiency. Russell Sage 

Foundation, New York, 1913. 
Hollingworth, L. S. Variability as Related to Sex dif- 
ferences in Achievement. American Journal of 

Sociology, 1914. Vol. 19, pp. 139-146. 
Hollingworth and Montague. Comparative Variability 

of the Sexes at Birth. American Journal of Soci- 
ology, 1914. Vol. 19. 
Howell, W. H. Textbook of Physiology, 1918. pp. 

1017ff. W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia. 
Starch, D. Educational Psychology, 1919. pp. 63-73. 

Macmillan Co., New York. 
Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence. 

Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston, 1916. 
Thompson, H. The Mental Traits of Sex. Chicago 

University Press, Chicago, 1903. 
Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology, Briefer 

Course, 1915, pp 340-354, and 369-376. Teachers 

College, New York. 
Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests. 

Warwick & York, Baltimore, 1914. 



APPENDIX 335 

CHAPTER VI 

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 

Dexter, E. G. Weather Influences. Macmillan Co., 
New York, 1914. 

Gates, A. I. Diurnal Variations in Memory and As- 
sociation. University of California Publications 
in Psychology, 1916. Vol. 1, pp. 323-344. Berke- 
ley, California. 

Gates, A. I.. Variations in Efficiency During the Day, 
etc. University of California Publications in Psy- 
chology, 1916. Vol. 2, pp. 1-156. Berkeley, Cali- 
fornia. 

Heck, W. H. The Efficiency of Grammar School Pupils 
in Reasoning Tests in Arithmetic at Different 
periods of the School Day. Journal of Educational 
Psychology, 1914. Vol. 5, pp. 92-95. 

Hollingworth, H. L. Variations in Efficiency During 
the Working Day. Psychological Review, 1914. 
Vol. 21, pp. 473-491. 

Huntington, E. Civilization and Climate. Yale Uni- 
versity Press, New Haven, Conn., 1915. 

Lee, F. S. Fresh Air. Popular Science Monthly, 1914. 
Vol. 84, pp. 313ff. Science Press, New York. 

Lee, F. S. Recent Progress in Our Knowledge of the 
Physiological Action of Atmospheric Conditions, 
Science, 1916. Vol. 44, pp. 183-190. Science 
Press, New York. 

Marsh, H. W. The Diurnal Course of Efficiency. 
Science Press, New York, 1906. 

Stecher, L. I. The Effects of Humidity and Nervous- 
ness on General Efficiency. Archives of Psy- 
chology, 1916. No. 38. 

Thorndike, McCall and Chapman. Ventilation in Rela- 
tion to Mental Work. Teachers College, Columbia 
Contributions to Education, 1916, No, 78, Teach- 
ers College, New York, 



336 APPENDIX 

CHAPTER YII 

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS (Continued) 

Ferree and Rand. The Efficiency of the Eye Under 
Different Conditions of Lighting. Transactions of 
the Illuminating Engineering Society, 1915. Vol. 
10, pp. 407-501, and 1097-1170. 

Ferree and Rand. The Power of the Eye to Sustain 
Clear Seeing Under Different Conditions of Light- 
ing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1917. 
Vol. 8, pp. 451-468. 

Ferree and Rand. Some Experiments on the Eye with 
Pendant Reflectors of Different Densities. Trans- 
actions of the Illuminating Engineering Society, 

1916. Vol. 11, pp. 1111-1136, and 1917, Vol. 12, 
pp. 464-487. 

Luckeish, M. Safeguarding the Eyesight of School 
Children. Transactions of the Illuminating Engi- 
neering Society, 1915. Vol. 10, pp. 181ff. 

Luckeish, M. Light and Shade and Their Applications. 
Van Nostrand Co., New York, 1916. 

Morgan, J. J. B. The Effects of Sound Distraction 
Upon Memory. American Journal of Psychology, 

1917. Vol. 28, pp. 191-208. 

Morgan, J. J. B. The Overcoming of Distraction and 
Other Resistances. Archives of Psychology, 1916. 
No. 35. 

CHAPTER Vm 

WORK, REST, FATIGUE AND SLEEP 

Arai T. Mental Fatigue. Columbia Contributions to 
Education, 1912. No. 54. Teachers College. 

Gilbreth, F. B. Fatigue Study. Sturgis & Walton 
Co., New York, 1916. 

Goldmark, J. Fatigue and Efficiency. Russell Sage 
Foundation, New York, 1913. 

Lee, F. S. The Human Machine and Industrial Effi- 
ciency. Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1918, 



APPENDIX 337 

Lee, F. S. The Nature of Fatigue. Popular Science 
Monthly, 1910. Vol. 76, pp. 182-195. 

Lusk, G. The Fundamental Basis of Nutrition. Yale 
University Press, New Haven, 1914. 

Patrick, G. T. W. The Psychology of Relaxation. 
Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston, 1916. 

Thorndike, E. L. Mental Fatigue. Psychological Re- 
view, 1900. Vol. 7, pp. 466-489 and 574-579. 

Thorndike, E. L. Mental Fatigue. Journal of Educa- 
tional Psychology, 1911. Vol. 2, pp. 61-80. 

CHAPTER IX 

DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 

Bush, A. D. Tobacco Smoking and Mental Efficiency. 

New York Medical Journal, 1914. Vol. 99, pp. 

519-527. 
Dodge, R., and Benedict, F. G. Psychological Effects 

of Alcohol. Carnegie Institute of Washington, 

D. C., 1915. 
Hollingworth, H. L. The Influence of Caffeine on 

Efficiency. Archives of Psychology, 1912. No. 22. 
Poffenberger, A. T. The Effects of Strychnine on 

Mental and Motor Efficiency. American Journal of 

Psychology, 1914. Vol. 25, pp. 82-120. 
Rivers, W. H. R. The Influence of Alcohol and Other 

Drugs on Fatigue. Arnold, London, 1908. 

CHAPTER XI 

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 

Bulletin 221. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hours, 
Fatigue and Health in British Munition Factories, 
1917. 

Gilbreth, L. M. Psychology of Management. Sturgis 
& Walton, New York, 1914. 

Hollingworth, H. L. Vocational Psychology. Apple- 
ton, New York, 1916. 

Jones, Elmer E. The Influence of Bodily Posture on 
Mental Activities. Science Press, New York, 1907, 



338 APPENDIX 

Link, Henry C. Employment Psychology. Macmillan, 
New York, 1919. 

Miinsterberg, Hugo. Psychology and Industrial Effi- 
ciency. Houghton, Mifflin, Boston and New York, 
1913. 

Oschrin, Elsie. Vocational Tests for Retail Sales- 
women. Journal of Applied Psychology, June, 
1918. Vol. II, pp. 148-155. 

Personnel System of the United States Army. Super- 
intendent of Documents, War Department, Wash- 
ington, 1919. 

Rogers, Herbert W. Psychological Tests for Stenog- 
raphers and Typewriters. Journal of Applied Psy- 
chology, Sept., 1917. Vol. I, pp. 268-274. 

Scott, Walter D. Increasing Human Efficiency in Busi- 
ness. Macmillan C, New York, 1911. 

Taylor, Frederick W. Shop Management. Harpers, 
New York, 1911. 

Tead, Ordway. Instinct in Industry. Houghton, Mif- 
flin, Boston, 1918. 

Veblen, Thorstein. The Instinct of Workmanship. Mac- 
millan, New York, 1914. 

CHAPTER XII 

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE WORKSHOP 

Culler, A. J. Interference and Adaptability. Science 
Press, New York, 1912. 

Drury. Scientific Management. Columbia University 
Press, New York, 1915. 

Frederick, Christine. The New Housekeeping. Double- 
day, Page, New York, 1913. 

Gilbreth, F. B. Motion Study. Sturgis & Walton, New 
York, 1911. 

Miinsterberg, Hugo. Psychology and Industrial Effi- 
ciency, Houghton, Mifflin, Boston and New York, 
1913. 

Taylor, Frederick W. Principles of Scientific Manage* 
ment. Harpers, New York, 1915. 



APPENDIX 339 

CHAPTER XIII 

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 

Adams, Henry F. Advertising and Its Mental Laws. 
Macmillan, New York. 1916. 

Brisco, Norris A. Fundamentals of Salesmanship. Ap- 
pleton, New York, 1916. 

Hollingworth, H. L. Advertising and Selling. Apple- 
ton, New York, 1912. 

Paynter, Eichard. Psychological Study of Confusion 
Between Word Trade-Marks. Bulletin U. S. Trade 
Mark Association, May, 1915. 

Scott, Walter D. Theory of Advertising. Small, May- 
nard & Co., Boston, 1913. 

Scott, Walter D. Psychology of Advertising. Small, 
Maynard & Co., Boston, 1908. 

Scott, Walter D. Influencing Men in Business. Ronald, 
New York, 1911. 

Starch, Daniel. Advertising. Scott, Foresman & Co., 
Chicago, 1914. 

Strong, E. K. Relative Merits of Advertisements. Sci- 
ence Press, New York, 1911. 

Tipper, Hotchkiss, Hollingworth and Parsons. Adver- 
tising, Principles and Practice. Ronald Press Co., 
New York, Second Edition, 1919. 

Whitehead, Harold. Principles of Salesmanship. Ron-* 
aid Press, New York, 1917, 

CHAPTER XIV 

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 

Crane, Harry. A Study in Association Reaction, Psy- 
chological Review. Princeton, 1915. 

Ferris. The Psychology of Punishment. 

Goddard, H. The Criminal Imbecile. Macmillan, New 
York, 1915. 

Gross, Hans. Criminal Psychology. Little, Brown, 
& Co., Boston, 1911. 

Healy, Wm. The Individual Delinquent. Little, Brown 
& Co., Boston, 1915. 



340 APPENDIX 

Miinsterberg, Hugo. On the Witness Stand. Double^ 

day, Page, New York, 1908. 
Muscio, Bernard. The Influence of the Form of a Ques-* 

tion. British Journal of Psychology, September, 

1916. 
Myers, Garry C. A Study in Incidental Memory. Sci- 
ence Press, New York, 1913. 
Stern, Wm. Beitrage zur Psychologie der Aussage. 

Leipsic, 1903-1906. 
Wells and Forbes. Electrical Process in the Human 

Body. Science Press, New York, 1911. 
Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests. 

Vol. II, C. viii. Warwick & York, Baltimore, 1915. 

CHAPTER XV 

PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 
Freud, S. Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Mac-^ 

millan, New York, 1914. 
Goddard, H. H. Feeblemindedness, Its Causes and Con- 
sequences. Macmillan, New York, 1914. 
Hart, Bernard. The Psychology of Insanity. Putnam's, 

New York, 1912. 
Healy, Wm. Mental Conflicts and Misconduct. Little, 

Brown & Co., Boston, 1917. 
McDougall, Wm. Social Psychology. Luce, Boston, 

1918. 
Pintner and Toops. Mental Tests of Unemployed Meii. 

Journal of Applied Psychology, March, 1918. Yol. 

II, pp. 15-25. 
Rosanoff-Defursac. Manual of Psychiatry (5th ed.). 

Wiley, New York, 1919. 
Thorndike, E. L. Original Nature of Man. Teachers 

College, New York, 1913. 
Woodworth, R. S. Dynamic Psychology. Columbia 

University Press, 1918. 

CHAPTER XVI 

PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 
Brill, A. A. Psychoanalysis, Saunders, Philadelphia, 
1912. 



APPENDIX 341 

Dodge and Benedict. Psychological Effects of Alcohol. 

Carnegie Institution, Washington, 1915. 
Dubois. Psychic Treatment of Nervous Disorders. 

Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1908. 
Hollingworth, L. S. Functional periodicity. Teachers 

College, New York, 1914. 
Holmes. The Conservation of the Child. Lippincott, 

Philadelphia, 1912. 
Janet, P. Major Symptoms of Hysteria. Macmillan, 

New York, 1907. 
Prince, et al. Psychotherapeutics. Badger, Boston, 

1909. 
Rivers, W. H. R. Influence of Alcohol and Other Drugs 

on Fatigue. Arnold, London, 1908. 
Strong, E. K. Effects of Hookworm Disease. Rocke- 
feller Foundation, 1916. 
Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence. 

Houghton, Mifflin, Boston, 1916. 
Wallin, J. E. Mental Health of the School Child. Yale 

University Press, New Haven, 1916. 
Wells, F. L. Mental Adjustments. Appleton's, New 

York, 1917. 

CHAPTER XVII 

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 

Bronner, Augusta. Psychology of Special Abilities and 

Disabilities. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1917. 
Colvin, S. S. The Learning Process. Macmillan Co., 

New York, 1911. 
Freeman, F. N. Psychology of the Common Branches. 

Houghton, Mifflin, Boston. 
Gordon, Kate. Educational Psychology. Holt, New 

York, 1917. 
Hollingworth, L. S. Psychology of Special Disability 

in Spelling. Teachers College, New York, 1917. 
Hollingworth, L. S. Psychology of Subnormal Children. 

Macmillan, New York, 1919. 
Huey, E. B. Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading. 

Macmillan, New York, 1918. 



B42 APPENDIX 

Judd. Psychology of High School Subjects. Ginn & 

Co., 1915. 
Monroe, DeVoss and Kelly. Educational Tests and 

Measurements. Houghton, Mifflin, Boston, 1917. 
Norsworthy and Whitley. Psychology of Childhood. 

Macmillan, New York, 1918. 
Starch, Daniel. Educational Measurement. Macmillan, 

New York, 1916. 
Strayer and Norsworthy. How to Teach. Macmillan, 

New York, 1917. 
Terman, L. M. Intelligence of School Children. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin, Boston. 
Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology. Teachers 

College, New York, 



INDEX 



Abstraction, fallacy of, 282 
Accidents, causes of, 236 
Acquisition of skill, efficiency 

in, 54 
Adams, 242 
Addison, 240 
Adler, 296 
Advertising, history of, 240 

psychology of, 239 
Age, and efficiency, 78, 88 

mental changes with, 94 

physical and physiological 
changes with, 90 
Alcohol, and efficiency, 171 

and mental deficiency, 174 

mental effects of, 173 

pathological effects of, 173 
Analysis, attitude of, 185, 208 

in education, 307 

in advertising, 243 
Applied Psychology, adjust- 
ments in, 325 

definition and scope of, 8 

difficulties and limitations of, 
18 

future of, 324 

history of, 10 

methods of, 185, 324 

objections to, 324. 
Arithmetic, methods of drilling, 
319 



Arithmetic, psychology of, 309 
Asexualization, 48 
Association test, 7, 249, 289 
Attention, and industrial acci- 
dents, 217 

inheritance of, 27 
Attitude, influence of, 229 

of psychology, 185 

Behavior, study of, 4 
Benedict, 172, 173 
Benussi, 251 
Bentham, 253 
Binet, 254 

BlNET-SlMON, 96 

Breitwieser, 242 
Breukink, 256 
Bricklaying, study of, 227 
Brill, 296 
Brown, 242 
Bush, 168 

Caffeine, influence of, 176, 180 

Carpentry, 223 

Cattell, 254 

Census, tabulation of, 230 

Clark, 166 

Climate, influence of, on effi- 
ciency, 107 

Clinical psychology, 258, 302, 
328 



343 



844 



INDEX 



Collecting instinct, 31 
Colored lights, value of, 130 
Consumer, psychology of, 232 
Content, of psychology, 243 
Control doses, 292 

groups, 291 

of conditions, 291 

of marriage, 48 
Competition, effects of, 210, 213 
Corrective measures, adaptation 

of, 261 
Crane, 251 
Chile, 141 
Crime, and season of the year, 

109 
Curiosity, instinct of, 31 
Curve of forgetting, 68 
Custom, nature of, 283 

Daily rhythm, influence on effi- 
ciency, 115 
Deficiency, and delinquency, 
274 
and responsibility, 259 
and unemployment, 271 
Dexter, 107, 113, 114 
Differential psychology, 203, 

314 
Disease, inheritance of, 46 
Dishwashing, analysis of, 187 
Distraction, influence on effi- 
ciency, 131 
measurement of, 134 
Distribution, curve of, 280 
of practice, 319 
of traits, 280 
Dodge, 172, 290 
Drawing, analysis of, 308 



Drug effects, individual differ- 
ences in, 183 

Drug experiments, difficulties 
of, 161 

Drugs and stimulants, 161 

Dynamogeny, 218 

Earle, 44 
Edison, 53, 156 
Education, function of, 307, 
312 

and psychology, 306 

and psychological content, 
311 

and psychological technique, 
316 
Educational psychology, 210, 

306 
Efficiency, and alcohol, 171 

and applied psychology, 1 

and caffeine-containing sub- 
stances, 176 

and daily rhythm, 115 

and distraction, 131 

and food, 155 

and illumination, 120 

and learning, 52 

and monotony, 136 

and sex, 78, 298 

and strychnine, 182 

and tobacco, 164 

and ventilation, 97 

dependence on age, 88 

dependence on rest and sleep, 
147 

influence of age on, 78 

influence of sex on, 78, 298 

in memory, 64 



INDEX 



345 



Efficiency, influence of work 
and fatigne on, 138 
organic conditions of, 297 
Effort, distribution of, 224 
Ellis, 43, 300 

Employees, selection of, 194 
Environment, influence of, 213 
Evidence, accumulation of, 249 
Experimental education, 306 
Expression, method of, 251 
Eye shades, use of, 129 

Fallacy, of abstraction, 282 
Falsehood, detection of, 252 
Fatigue, causes of, 139 
definition of, 139 
and accidents, 217 
muscular, nervous and men- 
tal, 139 
recovery from, 155 
study of, 297 
symptoms of, 144 
Feeble-mindedness, importance 
of, 271 
inheritance of, 45 
nature of, 281 
feeling tone, inheritance of, 
28 
Fere, 167, 293 
Ferree, 120, 129 
Food, influence on efficiency, 

155 
Frederick, 187, 225 
Freud, 296 

Functionalization, mental ef- 
fects of, 204 

Gale, 241 
Galton, 37, 71 



Gilbreth, 187, 227 

Glare, causes and effects of, 

127 
Goddard, 45, 174, 259 
Guilt, detection, 249 

Habit and education, 309 

and social work, 273 

formation of, 54 

psychology of, 273 
Harley, 167 

Heredity, influence of, 21 
Higher units, formation of, 

59 
History, of applied psychology, 
10 

of psychology, 2 
Hollingworth, H. L., 75, 177, 

180, 242, 118 
Hollingworth, L. S., 279, 301 
Hookworm, effects of, 289 
Hough, 167 
Housecleaning, 222 
Howell, 91 

Humidity, influence on effi- 
ciency, 97 

relation to temperature, 195 
Huntington, lOn, 112 

Icard, 299 

Illumination, and physiology of 
the eye, 121 
efficiency of, 120, 215 
means for improving, 129 
measures of efficiency of, 128 
problems in, 121 
types of artificial, 126 

Imagery, function of, 70 



346 



INDEX 



Imitation, instinct of, 34 
Incentive, and learning, 60 

effects of, 212 

study of, 248 
Individual differences, impor- 
tance of, 17 
Individualization, of industry, 
203 

of pedagogy, 314 

of punishment, 258 

social work, 280 
Inheritance, and control of 
marriage, 48 

and prenatal influence, 46 

bodily seat of, 22 

common to the human spe- 
cies, 21 

common to particular races, 
21, 35 

family, 40 

in families, 21 

of attention, 27 

of deafness, 42 

of feeble-mindedness, 45 

of feeling tone, 28 

of habits and diseases, 46 

of insanity, 46 

of instincts, 24 

of reflexes, 23 

of sensitivity, 27 

of spelling ability, 44 

mechanism of, 22 

mental, 42 

physical, 40 
Insanity, inheritance of, 46 

nature of, 281 

study of, 287 
Instinct, characteristics of, 24 



Instinct, collecting, 31 

importance of, 25 

of curiosity, 31 

of imitation, 34 

of pugnacity, 32 

of self-preservation, 30 

of sociability, 33 

of workmanship, 207 

racial, 35 
Intelligence, coefficient of, 96 
Irwin, 275 

James, 30, 63, 210 
Johnson, 240 
Jones, 296 
Jung, 251, 296 

Kent, 287 
Kirby, 61, 319 
Kraepelin, 290 

Law, psychology and, 248 
Learning, distribution of time 
in, 67 

imagery and, 70 

laws of, 56 , 64 

mass and sectional method of, 

m 

permanence of, 68 

psychology of, 316 
Lee, 101 
Lombard, 166 

Man, original nature of, 312 
Management, and psychology 

of, 201 
Market, psychology of, 232 
Marsh, 116 



INDEX 



347 



Mayo, 37 

Measurement, and management, 
205 

in education, 316 

of accuracy of observation, 
254 

of advertising, 241 

of deterrents, 263 

of drug effects, 290 

of infringement, 237 

of products, 206 

of salesmen, 201, 247 

of school products, 321 
Medical training, and psychol- 
ogy, 304 
Medicine, and psychology, 284 
Memory, efficiency in, 64 

reliability of, 252 

types of, 64 
Menstruation, influence of, 298 
Mental abnormality, tests of, 7 
Mental age, 259, 277 

scales for, 96 
Mental deficiency, frequency of, 
277 

importance of, 271 

influence of alcohol on, 174 

nature of, 280 

of the sexes, 87 
Mental effects of tobacco, 168 
Mental inheritance, 42 
Mental set, maintenance of, 221 
Methods, of psychology, 190 

of work, 224 
Meylan, 165 
Misery, causes of, 270 
Modern tendencies in psychol- 
ogy* 1 



Monotony, analysis of, 137 

effects of, 136, 228 
Morgan, 133 
Mosher, 300 
Motion study, 226 
Motor effects of tobacco, 165 
Mott, 46 

Movements, organization of, 
225 

study of, 226 
Munsterberg, 5, 8, 197, 251 
Muscio, 255 

Natural lighting, 125 

NORSWORTHY, 309 

Paynter, 236 

Pearson, 86 

Pedagogy, and psychology, 188 

Periodicity, effects of, 298 

Peterson, 251 

Posture, influence of, 214 

Physical inheritance, 40 

Physiological limit, 63, 70 

Pillsbury, 54 

poffenberger, 182 

Practice, distribution of, 319 
influence upon variability, 74 
method in learning, 61 

Prenatal influence, 46 

Printing and psychology, 188 

Product scales, 322 

Psychiatry, 303, 328 

Psychoanalysis, assumptions of, 
251 
practice of, 296 

Psychology, and advertising, 
239 



348 



INDEX 



Psychology, and education, 306 

and law, 248 

and management, 201 

and medicine, 284 

and the executive, 194 

and the market, 232 

and the medical school, 304 

and salesmanship, 244 

and social work, 270 

and vocational selection, 196 

attitude of, 185 

content of, 243 

future of, 324 

history of, 2 

modern tendencies in, 

technique of, 190, 205 

varieties of, 284 
Psychological clinic, 302 
Psychological technique, 244 
Psychopathology, and educa- 
tion, 314 
Psychotherapy, 294 
Pugnacity, instinct of, 32 
Punishment, psychology of, 
262 

Question, form of, 254 

Eeaction, of worker, 228 
Reading, psychology of, 189 
Records, 210 

Reflexes, characteristics of, 23 
Research, on drugs, 290 

on patients, 287 
Responsibility, determination 

of, 258 ' 
Rest, conditions for, 147 

distribution of, 224 



Rest, relation between work 

and, 149 
and sleep, 151 
Retentiveness, inheritance of, 29 
Reward, psychology of, 211 
Rhythm, 214, 218 ' 
Rice, 318 
Rivers, 167, 171, 174, 177, 290, 

293 
Rosastoff, 287 
Routing, 225 
Runge, 299 
Russel Sage Foundation, report 

of, 80 

Salesmanship, psychology of, 

244 
Salesmen, selection of, 200 
Season of the year, influence of, 

107, 109 * 
Selection of salesman, 247 
Self-preservation, instinct of, 

30 
Sensitivity, inheritance of, 27 
Sex differences, in general in- 
telligence, 82 

in instincts, 81 

in mental deficiency, 87 

in social demands, 277 

in variability, 85 

mental, 81 

physical, 79 
Scott, 197, 241 
Scripture, 251 
Shepard, 151 
Sleep, amount required, 152 

influence of caffeine on, 180 
Sociability, instinct of, 33 



INDEX 



349 



Social psychology, 211 

Social work, and psychology, 

270 
Soldiering, 206 
Special classes, 315 
Standardization, and habit, 209 

nature of, 209 

of tests, 293 
Starch, 242 
Stern, 254 
Strayer, 309 
Strong, 242, 289 
Strychnine, influence of, 182 
Suggestion, influence of, 255, 
293 

Taylor, C. K., 166 
Taylor, F. A., 202, 207, 212, 
224 

Teaching, analysis of, 310 
Technique, of psychology, 190 

in education, 316 
Temperature, influence of, 97 
Testimony, evaluation of, 252 
Tests, association, 7 

for vocations, 196 
Thorndike, 38, 41, 44, 54, 75, 

81, 84, 197 
Tobacco, influence on efficiency, 
164 

mental effects of, 168 

motor effects of, 165 
Trade symbols, infringement of, 
237 

psychology of, 235 



Transfer, experiments in, 72 

law of transfer, 73 

of training, 72 
Training, transfer of, 72 
Trial and error, learning by, 

54 
Truancy, psychology of, 275 
Typewriting, analysis of, 228 

Unemployment, psychology of, 
271 * 

Variability, influence of prac- 
tice upon, 74 

sex differences in, 85 
Vaughn, 167 
Veblin, 206 

Ventilation, effects of defective, 
99 

influence of, 216 

physical theories of, 102 

rules for, 106 

theories of, 100 

Wallas, 235 

Weather, influence of, on effi- 
ciency, 111 

Wells, 287, 290 

Will to learn, influence of, 69 

Woods, 43 

Woodworth, 36 

Work, and fatigue, 138 
relation of rest to, 149 

Workshop, psychology in the, 
221 



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